Living in an apartment or other rental unit when it's cold
can be less than ideal.
You might not have direct control of the building's heat system,
and plenty of rental units in Canada
have ancient, drafty windows or poor insulation.
Of course, your landlord has a legal requirement to keep your home warm
to a certain degree, and we'll get to that.
But what if you like it even warmer?
Or you want to shave a few dollars off your utility bills.
You can save as much as 30 percent on your energy bills
with basic improvement to your home's heating system and insulation.
Try these nine affordable, straightforward tips
for keeping your apartment toasty warm.
But first, a quick note on that landlord thing.
In Canada, every rental home must be capable of warming
to a certain temperature during the winter.
If your home's heating system can't bring the temperature inside
up to at least 20 degrees Celsius,
your landlord will need to improve
the heating system or the insulation. Whatever it takes.
In Toronto, rental unit heating systems must be able to maintain
a temperature of at least 21 degrees from September 15 through June 1st.
In the province of Alberta, the temperature minimum is 22 degrees.
So if you're freezing at home and turning up the heat isn't enough,
get in touch with your landlord.
If you like it warmer than those minimums
or you want to shave a few dollars off your heating bills,
here come the tips.
Maybe the easiest thing you can do.
Make sure your heating system isn't blocked by furniture or anything else.
Whether your home has baseboard heating or furnace ducts or radiators,
make sure that your heat sources have a clear space around them.
If they're blocked by anything, the heat won't circulate efficiently
and you'll end up paying to heat your couch,
but not the rest of the room.
Maybe it goes without saying, but keeping doors and windows tightly closed
traps heat inside the apartment where you want it.
You can even take it a step further and buy draft stoppers
to place along the bottom of the doors that lead from your apartment
into the common hallway or outdoors.
You could be losing precious heat to the tiny cracks underneath those doors.
If you live in an older rental unit, your windows probably aren't airtight.
Meaning freezing air is sneaking through when it's cold outside.
But even if your windows are pretty much sealed,
you can cover them completely with a clear plastic sheet
to add way more insulating power.
It might look ugly, but the trapped air between the window and the plastic
happens to be an amazingly effective insulator.
One other thing:
If you have an in-window air conditioning unit,
make sure it's sealed up tight during the winter.
There is no better heat source than the sun, even in the winter.
But at the same time, your curtains and drapes help trap heat
inside the home when they're closed.
The solution is simple:
Keep your drapes or blinds open while the sun is shining
to harvest some of that free natural heat.
Close them again as soon as the sun isn't shining
to trap what heat you've got inside where you need it.
The right humidity levels in your house make the air feel warmer
without raising the temperature.
Winters in Canada often come with extremely dry air,
so you need to raise the humidity in your home.
Humidity levels between 30 and 50 percent are ideal for most.
The obvious way to do this is to buy a humidifier
if you're willing to spend the money.
But there are a few free things you can do
to give your apartment a humidity boost.
If you leave the bathroom door open while you're showering,
some of that warm, humid air will spread throughout the house.
Of course, doing that depends a lot on who you live with.
If you have a dishwasher, open it up as soon as it's done washing
and let the steam escape.
Hang drying your laundry inside also helps.
Basically, any time you can put evaporating water to use
rather than venting it outside,
you might as well do it.
Just don't go overboard.
Too much humidity can make things feel colder,
and in extreme cases, even encourage mould growth.
Speaking of water, you can use hot water to keep yourself warm
without wasting energy heating the whole room at once.
Hot water bottles aren't just for your grandmother.
Filling a hot water bottle and keeping it under the blankets at your feet
when you go to sleep
can keep your bed warm and allow you to turn the heat way down at night.
We normally associate fans with summer heatwaves,
but you can make use of them during the winter, too.
Normally, your ceiling fan works by pushing air down
and creating a breeze to cool you.
But most ceiling fans have a switch on them that sets them to run in reverse.
When the fan is off, flip that switch.
When you turn the fan on, it should now be turning the opposite direction.
On most models, the winter setting turns clockwise.
Turning this way, the fan pulls cool air up from the floor
and forces warm air down from the ceiling.
If you're into interior design, I have good news.
Well, the first good news is we have tons of interior design videos you can check out.
But more to the point.
The other good news is that you can use design elements
to help your apartment stay warm.
Where design and insulation meet, you'll find rugs and wall tapestries.
If your apartment has cold linoleum or tile flooring,
lay down some big, thick rugs.
It helps trap the heat and feels warmer on your feet.
And if you like wall decor, you can turn that into insulation too.
Large wall tapestries can help trap a little heat as well,
especially if they're made of heavy material.
Space heaters are an obvious way to juice up your heating power.
But you should only use space heaters as a last resort, for two reasons.
They're expensive to operate and they can be fire hazards.
If you do decide to go the space heater route,
make sure you know how to use it safely.
Only leave it on while you're in the room with it
and turn it off when you leave the room or when you go to sleep.
Keep a clear space of around at least 1 metre.
Put it directly on the floor, not on top of a table or shelf
where it could get knocked over.
And don't use a space heater somewhere that kids or pets can knock it around.
Running a space heater is often just as expensive as the building's main heat system.
Better to try the first eight things on the list before you get to that point.
For more helpful advice for renters, make sure to subscribe
and check out the renters specific playlist on our channel.
Thank you for watching, and I hope you found this helpful.