TheCatSite.com › Forums › General Forums › The Cat Lounge › I'm freezing!
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

I'm freezing!

post #1 of 25
10/17/11 at 4:32pm
Thread Starter 
The rental agency hasn't turned the heat on in my building yet.

It’s currently 6:30 pm, and it’s 63 degrees in my apartment. I have the oven on at 500 degrees with the oven doors open, trying to generate some heat without much success. In the morning when I wake up it’s even colder. Today it was less than 60 degrees.

I have arthritis and the constant cold is causing me to experience a great deal of pain in my joints, and my hands and feet are so cold that my fingers and toes are blue and hurt.

I wrote a letter to the agency and copied it to the Residential Tenancies Branch and faxed it to both places.
Reply
post #2 of 25
10/17/11 at 5:07pm
Ack!! Not okay!!

I would call them until the phone rang off the hook.

In the meantime, is there anywhere you can go to keep from freezing to death? Maybe a local coffee shop, with wi-fi, for a few hours?
Reply
post #3 of 25
10/17/11 at 5:26pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by speakhandsforme View Post
Ack!! Not okay!!

I would call them until the phone rang off the hook.

In the meantime, is there anywhere you can go to keep from freezing to death? Maybe a local coffee shop, with wi-fi, for a few hours?
I'm having some hot cocoa and I'm going to go and huddle under my electric blanket.

The heat won't be turned on tonight. Their office is closed so they won't get my fax until the morning. But I'll be raising the roof if I come home again tomorrow after work and it's this cold again!
Reply
post #4 of 25
10/17/11 at 5:27pm
What about a small space heater to hold you over? I can't imagine having to write or call someone to get heat. That's horrible.
Reply
post #5 of 25
10/17/11 at 5:34pm
Similar situation, except my ridiculous roommate (who owns the house out of which I rent a room) refuses to turn on the heat because she "can't afford it".

I'm sitting here wearing heavy PJ bottoms, a tee shirt, a heavy sweatshirt, socks and slippers, and fingerless gloves, wrapped in a fleece blanket. I'm probably going to get a space heater tomorrow and use the electric blanket tonight. It is 61 in this house.
Reply
post #6 of 25
10/17/11 at 5:39pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by LuvMyParker View Post
What about a small space heater to hold you over? I can't imagine having to write or call someone to get heat. That's horrible.
I don't have a space heater. I'm typically a hot person and have no need for a space heater. Most nights even in the winter I sleep on top of the covers with the windows open an inch or so.

So when I'm feeling as cold as I am right now, it's because it's really, really cold!
Reply
post #7 of 25
10/17/11 at 5:40pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Melorix View Post
Similar situation, except my ridiculous roommate (who owns the house out of which I rent a room) refuses to turn on the heat because she "can't afford it".

I'm sitting here wearing heavy PJ bottoms, a tee shirt, a heavy sweatshirt, socks and slippers, and fingerless gloves, wrapped in a fleece blanket. I'm probably going to get a space heater tomorrow and use the electric blanket tonight. It is 61 in this house.
How is she going to react to you using a heater and increasing the electric bill?
Reply
post #8 of 25
10/17/11 at 5:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Natalie_ca View Post
How is she going to react to you using a heater and increasing the electric bill?
Call me childish, but at this point, I don't care. This is just one of the many reasons I want so desperately to move out -- climate control.

Side note: Does a space heater really use that much juice?

EDIT: Realizing it does take a good amount of energy to run even a small space heater with some help from good ol' Google. I'll likely refrain from buying one given the amount of juice it can consume. I immensely dislike my roommate, but now that I realize space heaters can be mighty 'spensive, I care a bit more.
Reply
post #9 of 25
10/17/11 at 5:48pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Melorix View Post
Call me childish, but at this point, I don't care. This is just one of the many reasons I want so desperately to move out -- climate control.

Side note: Does a space heater really use that much juice?
I don't know. I've never used one. But I know from using my air conditioner, which they claim uses less electricity than a coffee maker, it increased my hydro bill by around $60.00 per month when running nearly 24/7. The first time I saw the bill with the air conditioner, I thought "That's a pretty expensive coffee maker!!!" lol
Reply
post #10 of 25
10/17/11 at 6:32pm
Well running them constantly does get expensive. I used to put a towel under my door and turn it on for about 20 minutes, until the room was toasty, then shut it off until it got really cold again.

Normally we just leave the "main" heaters on around 15c (60f) all day when its cold out.
Reply
post #11 of 25
10/17/11 at 6:59pm
Thread Starter 
I've had the oven on for 4 hours and it's now starting to feel a bit warmer in the living room. Still freezing in my bathroom and bedroom though.
Reply
post #12 of 25
10/17/11 at 7:13pm
Wow that's terrible! Hopefully you will get this all sorted out by tomorrow
Reply
post #13 of 25
10/17/11 at 7:21pm
Can you get those handwarmers that hunters put in their pockets? I think they have ferrous (iron) shavings in them; you shake the packet, and it stays warm for 8 hours or so. I use them a lot in the house (I'm always cold). I tuck 1 in each pocket. They also have toe warmers; I've never used those. They are cheap; about $1.25 USD for a pack of 6. They do stay warm that long. Walmart has them in the fishing/camping/hunting department. You could also mircowave a potato, and wrap it in a towel, etc. and keep it on your person (pocket, etc.).

I hope you get warm very soon! I know how miserable you must feel--I once spent 1 month without heat in February and March (our heat pump died; lots of problems installing the new one, etc.). Our house was 44F downstairs, and I could see my breath in the dark! BTW, this is how I discovered the handwarmers!
Reply
post #14 of 25
10/18/11 at 4:52am
Ugh that sucks I hope they turn your heat on soon.

I have had my oil heat running for about two weeks now. I keep it to be around 70ish so it runs for the morning and then the house stays nice and toasty thru out the day and it doesnt kick back on again till over night. We are trying not to use the wood stove right away becuse its so hard to control how hot or cold it gets and we have really really good wood this winter so Im gonna be having some windows open when we start burning the wood its going to be deathly hot in here.

I have two plug in oil radiator thingermabobbers. I dont notice too much of a hike in my electric bill when we use them but we only really use one all the time and it has to be really really really really really freezing cold for us to use it. We put it in the bathroom where all the pipes are to keep them from freezing. We also have a heater in the barn where the well pump is because it froze last year and that was HORRIBLE to have to fix.
Reply
post #15 of 25
10/18/11 at 6:11am
I absolutely hate being cold, so I know how you're feeling. Here at work, we have a crappy heating/cooling system. And there's one person in here who must be going through menopause or something; she's constantly complaining about being too hot and is always walking around fanning herself with paper. Everybody else is freezing to death and I'm usually wearing a sweatshirt or heavy sweater on top of my casual work clothes. Because one person is too hot. And quite frankly, 65 degrees is too chilly when you're tied to a desk for eight hours. (Although, to be honest, the general consensus around here is that if she'd keep her mouth shut for two minutes, she might not be so warm all the time. Yes, she's one of those people. Makes everybody crazy...she simply will not shut up.)

But I digress....sorry. We haven't turned the heat on in the house yet....we're waiting until we get back from CT at the end of the month. We have electric heat and it can get expensive. I put the electric blanket on the bed a few weeks ago, but there have only been a few nights that we really did need it turned on. Rick was just saying last night that we've been pretty lucky that the house hasn't been really all that cool yet.
Reply
post #16 of 25
10/18/11 at 6:13am
I dont blame you for not turning your heat on Pam. If I had electric heat I probably wouldnt use it at all and suffer thru the massive amounts of heat from the wood stove. Dfs brother installed a coal stove so he would never have to use the electric heat, the one time they used it their bill was like 800 a mth for three months straight.
Reply
post #17 of 25
10/18/11 at 6:26am
We have electric heat and a wood stove and haven't used any yet. Right now our house is 63F and it feels okay.
Reply
post #18 of 25
10/18/11 at 8:58am
I hated living in an apartment and waiting for them to turn on the heat. Then when they did, it was way too hot all the time. I lived in a ground floor apartment and I was hot, and people said the top floor was really bad. I only lived in my apartment for 14 months before I had enough and moved into a rental townhouse. Now I rent a duplex.

I was freezing when I woke up this morning and really cold walking to the bus. Now (4 hours later) its nice and cool and I have the front door open and the 2 windows in the living room to let some air in.

Quote:
Originally Posted by 3CatsN1Dog View Post
Dfs brother installed a coal stove so he would never have to use the electric heat, the one time they used it their bill was like 800 a mth for three months straight.
That's really expensive for heat. My old house had electric heat and our bill was about $100-$130 a month. We kept our house fairly cold though and bundled up with blankets. I kept the dog crate rooms warmer during the day when nobody was home and would turn it off when we got home and just have the heat on in whatever room we were in.

My new place is gas heat and on equal billing we pay $72 a month.
Reply
post #19 of 25
10/18/11 at 9:23am
Trick to the space heaters is keep them on low(600Watt). We used them for the entire house last year and bills were not that bad considering its poorly insulated and 2 story house. The small ones work great-just dont get the surround heat I have found them not to be annoying and slow to heat up. We had 5 running all the time and sometimes a 6th one on. Plus the cat room heater(built in but is electric)
Reply
post #20 of 25
10/18/11 at 3:17pm
Thread Starter 
I followed up a with a phone call today. They told me I need to call the caretaker, which I did. He claimed the heat was already turned on. I told him "not in my apartment: The rads are ice cold despite the thermostat being as high as it will go."

I just came home and it felt a bit warmer than it was yesterday when I walked into the apartment from the hallway. I immediately went to feel the radiator. It's warm, so there must be some heat coming. It's still not warm in here, but so far it seems a little better than yesterday. Yesterday I was sitting at my computer with blue fingers and toes, that were aching, and my nose was running a mile a minute.
Reply
post #21 of 25
10/19/11 at 5:08am
Thread Starter 
It's much warmer in here today. I actually didn't feel like I jumped into a vat of ice when I got out of bed this morning.

However, now I've got a wicked cold. I know colds are caught by virus from other people, but being frozen 1/2 to death doesn't help your immune system.

I've loaded up my tote bag with all kinds of cold drugs, and Buckley's Cough Syrup, pretty much the only one I can use now because it doesn't have sugar in it. It's the grossest stuff I've ever tasted, and it better work!!!! LOL
Reply
post #22 of 25
10/19/11 at 5:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by catlover19 View Post
I hated living in an apartment and waiting for them to turn on the heat. Then when they did, it was way too hot all the time. I lived in a ground floor apartment and I was hot, and people said the top floor was really bad. I only lived in my apartment for 14 months before I had enough and moved into a rental townhouse. Now I rent a duplex.

I was freezing when I woke up this morning and really cold walking to the bus. Now (4 hours later) its nice and cool and I have the front door open and the 2 windows in the living room to let some air in.



That's really expensive for heat. My old house had electric heat and our bill was about $100-$130 a month. We kept our house fairly cold though and bundled up with blankets. I kept the dog crate rooms warmer during the day when nobody was home and would turn it off when we got home and just have the heat on in whatever room we were in.

My new place is gas heat and on equal billing we pay $72 a month.
I think their problem is that while they didnt blast the heat up to like 80 it was still kept right above 70 and the house is old so it probably ran alot. Now that they have the coal stove though they never use the electric heat and only spend about 300 bucks for the whole winter but their house is like an oven. LOL
Reply
post #23 of 25
10/19/11 at 7:55am
Y'all would hate my place. I have gas central heating, so its not expensive at all, but I set the heat to turn on at 62oF as I like it cold and prefer to just dress more warmly with my thermal socks and my funky wool beanie, heh.
Reply
post #24 of 25
10/19/11 at 11:25am
Do your radiators need bleeding, Linda? Ours don't heat up properly until we do that when we first put the heat back on.

You'd hate our place. Our oil heater is on a timer, so the kitchen, bathroom and living room heat up to 18° (63 - 64°F) from 5 to 7 a.m. and from 5 to 9 p.m.. If the doors are closed they might reach 20° (68°). Otherwise they're set at 13° (55°), and the other rooms (bedrooms and study) aren't heated.

Jamie can get in the waterbed (set at 25°) if he's too cold, but usually he just gets under one of his fleece blankets.
Reply
post #25 of 25
10/19/11 at 3:18pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jcat View Post
Do your radiators need bleeding, Linda?
Never a single time in the 16 years I've lived here. I can hear when the heat is on, even when I have the thermostat turned right down to zero. Before I wrote the letter, I had checked the radiators and they weren't even a little warm; they were ice cold.

It's warmer in here now. Just right actually. Usually when the heat is on it's too hot because the heat from all of the other apartments below me rises up. But they are doing renovations on the other 1/2 of the building so it's empty, and the side that I live on is less than 50% full. So I'll likely not need to open my windows to let some of the heat out this winter, like I've had to do in the past.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: The Cat Lounge
TheCatSite.com › Forums › General Forums › The Cat Lounge › I'm freezing!