orbisongirl:

My landlord lied and said I had central heat, but it's actually a small unit that only heats the bedroom. So the bathroom and living room are always frigid. What are some cheap ways to heat your apartment without running up a huge elctric bill.

 

If you can get enough heat from it, could you put a fan in the doorway to send the heat out to the rest of the apartment? Also, go around every outside wall with a candle and watch the flame. If it blows inward toward the house, you have a cold air leak. Even a tiny leak can make a difference. Make sure things like electrical outlets are insulated, check closely around windows and doors and seal up everything you can find. 

Use rugs on the floor in the kitchen and anywhere it isn't carpeted. A layer of newspaper under a rug will insulate against a cold floor.

If your landlord lied to you, your lease isn't valid. A landlord cannot lie to a prospective renter about the utilities, expenses, etc. If a renter signs a lease under false information, the lease is not valid. You'd need to take it to court, but it would probably be worth it to get out of the lease.

Depending how large your apartment is, it is likely to be quite expensive to heat it with anything electric, which is your best option. We have a radiant electric oil heater we use in one of our rooms that just doesn't hold heat well, and even though it's efficient, it's still expensive. It's our main room, so there's not a lot we can do about it unless we want to be relegated to our bedroom for the rest of the winter (I realize that has it's own appeal, but it's not terribly realistic). These are one of your safest options. They have no exposed flame or high-heat coils, and most have tip-switches which will shut it off it if tips over. Ours is pretty efficient, costing between 9-19 cents an hour to run (depending on what setting you use).

I keep a small space heater for "just in case", because my building has old baseboard heaters and if the pipes freeze there is no heat. It does add to the electric bill, but it can be used frugally... mine has a setting where it will turn off automatically once the room reaches a certain temperature, and I actually turn it off myself after the room feels warm enough. When it's not frigidly cold out just running it for a few minutes at a time is helpful.

 Hi orbisongirl

 

I live in an apartment too. And it is a very old brick building and when its getting cold outside, guess what I have it really cold inside too. I have a little wooden oven installed for this winter, but not everybody can do this. But there is an idea that my brother came up with. It is possible over here in Germany to heat a room with a camping gas heater. They have a special heater that you put on top and it comes with a security lock that automatically turns the gas of if there is not enough air. That would heat up very instantly and is not to expensive and best of all you could take it from one room to the next whenever you need to.

Thanks for all the tips, everyone. Luckily, one of my other apartment-dwelling friends is getting rid of a small space heater and decided to give it to me. Since my apartment is the size of a cardboard refrigerator box, it should work just fine.

 Falcon,

That is interesting, but if I tried to prosecute, it would just be my word against theirs (I was a first-time renter and wasn't smart enough to write down everything they told me). They also said utilities were included, but did not tell me that electric wasn't included (all their brochures for the 2008-2009 year were corrected to mention this). Fortunately, I only have a couple more months left before the lease runs out, so I am just going to suck it up and try another company. I will know what to watch out for this time.