Can I use styrofoam to insulate my walls?

I live in an apartment that I rent in Baltimore, and it's getting cold now, and it doesn't look like the walls are doing a very good job of insulating because if I touch the walls, they're really cold. I was wondering if it was possible to get a bunch of styrofoam sheets and plating them over the walls to keep the heat in, and if that was a safe thing to do. How thick should it be if I were to do this, .5", 1"? And where do you suggest I get this stuff?

Thanks.

Reply to
- Eli Luong -
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Unsafe, and usually illegal, unless you panel over it. That stuff is nasty to be around if it starts burning. A u-haul and a different apartment would probably be cheaper.

How cold does it get in Baltimore most winters? High teens-20s? Plastic the windows with some kits, get a little cube heater for the room you are in at the time, and wear a sweater. Some floor-to-ceiling drapes on the outside walls could help, too. If you have a sliding door, it definitely needs drapes and/or a film kit, and probably tape the cracks till spring, too. Can you see daylight under front door? If so, have landlord install a new sweep, or push a rolled-up towel against it.

aem sends....

Reply to
ameijers

Well, I'm a student, so moving around isn't a real option right now. They recently installed this lame window heat/AC unit which doesn't seem to work very well. I leave it on 74 F but it seems to stay on all the time, which seems to imply that it's not working so well or the room is losing heat rapidly from somewhere. The floor is unusually cold for some reason, and I haven't been able to figure out why. I guess I'll have to bother the landlord, but I don't want them tearing up the room.

Reply to
- Eli Luong -

Reply to
Northern Trader

Is there anyone living under you? I lived in an apartment in Baltimore that had an unheated basement and electric baseboard heat. My December electric bill was $ 300.00 plus $ 40.00 per week for kerosene and the temp never got above 60. I had to move.

Reply to
hwm54112

baltimore as other cities require that landlord if including heat will provide to ___degrees. look it up on your city or state's website. you will need to determine how to properly notify your landlord if your heat is insufficient or needs repair. it is possible the heating element in the air conditioner is only partly working or its thermostat is in need of repair. this may or not be specified in your lease, but probably specified in law. if you are the homeowner or tenant provider of your own heat, the comfort level and your health in any apartment is dependent on insulation, temperature control, fresh air changes, balanced humidity. by reading the electrical plate on your window air conditioner you will find out how many btu's of heat it is capable of providing. by determining that you are cold, fix the problem of insufficient heat with legal supplemental heaters usually electric. the 1500 watt heaters are usually around 5200 btu only enough for a small insulated bedroom. using flammable kerosene heat indoors in a residence is very dangerous and prohibited. fumes from a propane gas outdoor grill would be as dangerous indoors as using any unvented gas burning appliance including an unattended gas stove. if you need to move or terminate your lease please give the landlord a chance to fix the problem first. many tenants presume the landlord is aware of a problem, where the opposite is true, please phone promptly. cold tenants who call can help prevent frozen water pipes. perhaps there is a vacant apartment below you where the heat has failed and the plumbing is in danger. all my comfortable insulated tenants must be warm tonight. either that or they enjoy the cold? you need to consider adding thick carpet padding and nice thick warm carpeting for the chilly floor problem. our lease requires tenants notify us promptly for repairs.

-bill in buffalo. 35 degrees out on the porch.

Reply to
buffalobill

I sympathize with you. Besides putting up a plastic barrier on the windows you don't use, try getting area rugs and space heaters from a thrift store or Freecycle (I'm assuming you have bare floors if they're cold).

I highly recommend checking out Freecycle for Baltimore. The goal of FreecycleBaltimore is to reduce waste by connecting people who are discarding goods with others who are seeking the same goods.

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I've used Freecycle here near Seattle for all kinds of things. It's amazing the high quality stuff people want to give away to make room for new purchases.

Reply to
Abe

At least when you're in bed, an electric blanket is incredibly effective. Mine goes to 10 but I don't think I've ever used more than 3

Maybe when you're seated in the same chair for a long time too.

But get one that is less than 20 years old. Prior to that there was maybe possibly a possibility that they caused cancer. If you want to learn more about this seach on high tension wires and cancer. They were the bigger fear for people who lived within 100 feet of them. Now they say, iiuc, that even they never caused cancer. But electric blanket wires were rearranged so that radiation from one wire cancels out radiation from an other.

When you're not in bed, more clothes really make a difference. Except for your hands.

Didn't get the details, but heard a promo this month that new-car smell contains poisons also. Anyone hear more about that?

And don't forget, the more uncomfortable you are, the more you'll be able to tell this story in 20 or 50 years.

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Reply to
mm

Despite my other post, all of which I believe, you should get a thermometer and start keeping a record of the temperature in your apartment. Not the tiny ones but the one 6 or 7 inches. Keep a log every hour or three when you are awake. Much better if it ever gets to court than just saying, I was cold. And even when you talk to the landlord, don't threaten court -- it will just annoy him, but tell him just because you're curious about how cold it has to be to make you cold, you're keeping a record. You're a student after all. This is one more thing to study, and it's about you. What could be more interesting. I do things like this even when I own my own house and cause my own heat problems, because I'm curious.

It's possible a window is broken in a basement or vacant apartment downstiars.

I would leave the window unit on 68 for 12 hours or more. Less if it actually gets colder, but if it's running all the time and it's now less than 68, unless the thermostat in the unit is way off, it will continue to run all the time when set at 68. But people are funny and if you can only say you had it set on 74, some will reply, some even seriously, "Why do you need 74? You don't need 74" and you'll get stuck in a conversation about that, that it doesn't make any difference if it is on 74 since it never gets above 62, or what the thermometer says. Some people seem honestly not to understand all this. Some landlords will, I think, even say it in court "He wanted to have his apartment at 74!" But this way you can say you tried 68 for a day, 74 for a day, etc.

I just went shopping for plastic sheeting in Baltimore a month ago, and I was going to tell you good places (there are 2), but I'm sure they're right about being unsafe, etc. The other suggestions are good.

Check if air is coming in around the new installationj of the AC/heater.

Is there any heat coming from the building at all, or is it all from your window unit? I have a friend whose only heat at work for 20 years, in Baltimore, in the county where it is colder, is from a unit like that, but she's only there from 8 to 4 in the day. And she only has one 14 x 14 room to heat. I don't what size her window unit is, but I don't think she could stay there at night. It would be too cold.

She manages the business and works for her uncle, who owns it.. If she were uncomfortable during the day, something would be done. I don't know how big your apartment is.

I don't know what kind of building you live in. In NYC where I used to live, there is a minimum temp for daytime and another for nighttime. My landlord used to set the temp back in the day, because he figured most people were at work. That was true but it wasn't true about everyone, including the old ladies who had lived there since the

1930's or the baby a new tenant had. Eventually he got fined in landlord tenant court for this. But you don't want to go to court -- it's a pain and much more so in Baltimore than NYC -- you want heat, or at least comfort.

Oh yeah, boil water. The humidity helps a lot. I've boiled a gallon at a time. Takes a couple hours iirc. Worth 4 or 5 degrees F. No kidding. Far far more effective than just running the same burner without water on top, which would be worth almost nothing, I think. Remember to turn the stove off before the pot gets empty. The feeling of warmth lasts 8 to 12 hours iirc Maybe I do it at 7 and go to bed at 11 or 12. . So if you do this at 6 PM, it will be cold when you wake up. Also, if there is a baby to be delivered, the boiling water will be useful.

And if you have hot water, you can start the boiling with hot water. You can also stop the tub. put the curtain in it, and run the shower. Make sure it doesn't overflow -- dont' be like the girl on the people's court who thought the overflow would stop it from overlowing. It barely does anything.

But the steam will fill the whole apartment, and you can let the hot water sit in the tub until it cools off. Take the soap out of dish, or it will turn to slime. I don't know why this doesn't happen when people are showering to get clean.

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Reply to
mm

It turned out that folks living near hi tension wires were getting more cancers than they should have, but further investigation found that the cause of the cancers was not the high tension wires or any electric/magnetic fields from them. It was the herbecides that the power company sprayed on the vegetation under the wires that was causing the cancers.

Reply to
Rich Greenberg

Thank you so much. That is so so interesting. Another example of how one can run down the wrong path with research, and how statistical correlation may or may not mean cause and effect.

My brother negligently? (at least he worried that he shouldn't have for a while) bought a house a block and half from power lines. That is, there were the lines and the homes that backed up on that area, then the homes across the street from those homes, and my brother's home was behind those homes, on the second street from the lines. Along with a new-born daughter, who seems to have turned out healthy.

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Reply to
mm

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