How can I make my rented room hotter?

Any room heater sucks up electricity. If you have three outer walls, you probably have a lot of windows. Most heat loss is thru windows. Go to the hardware, and get a plastic window shrink wrap kit. It is easy to put up, double sided tape, and a hair dryer to shrink it tight. Fun putting it up and shrinking it too. If that doesn't work, you will probably have to buy an electric room heater. Window shrink wrap won't bring it up 10 degrees, but you will notice difference. All rooms with three cooling walls are cold.

Okay first,

check the weather-stripping on any exterior doors.

Make sure they are snug to the door when closed.

Then check the door-bottom and threshold.

A good way to do this is; open the door, put a piece of paper over the threshold, and close the door over the paper so that you can still grab it.

Then try to move the paper side to side.

If it moves too freely, there's a gap and it should be repaired.

It should be snug the whole width of the door.

Or use a credit card. That's all mine are good for anyway!

You can also wait for a windy day and hold a candle close to the edges of the closed door and check for flickers in the flame.

Next, the windows, if any.

You'd be amazed how much heat is lost by old and inefficient windows.

I don't know what type of window(s) you have, but you can use the candle method here too and make your repairs, if any.

After you've taken care of any drafts, invest in some thick curtains. These will help a lot. And you can even stick an old blanket or something similar in the window opening behind the curtains.

You'd lose the light, but gain the warmth.

Lastly, make sure your register is fully open and facing the right way.

Many times they are flipped around and blowing on a wall or something. Most inefficient...

And lastly again, I don't know how agreeable your housemates are, but you could close their registers halfway or so so that more hot air is forced out through your vent.

And the last lastly, you might consider moving the thermostat into your room. The heat is going to rise anyway, heating the other rooms. So why not have the sensor where it's needed most? In the coldest room!

If you do these things, it shouldn't affect your usage much, if at all.

In fact, it'll probably be cheaper since it's a more efficient setup.

You wouldn't be losing all that heat from the upper floors. Most of the heat would be coming from your room, get it? Use your powers of persuasion on 'em to talk 'em into it and keep "fine tuning" the registers till you get it just right where everyone is happy.

Take care and good luck.

2

You can buy a small inexpensive space heater...just use it while you are home of course. If there is a hallway with steps leading upstairs and a corrider-meaning another door before going into the next apartment- I would suggest a fan on the top of your steps blowing the warm air back down to your apartment...your only alternative and it wouldn't really be that heat efficient, would be to wallpaper, put cork, or wood paneling on the walls....or even drapes...which may look ugly......check out your windows first though...you would be surprised the heat loss around the woodwork and the window itself...the calking shrinks over years and leaves gaps which leave a lot of cold air in....just run your hand around the wood work...where ever you feel a really cold draft coming from underneath the wood...do the cheapest cure...CRAZY GLUE....just squirt that stuff in that hole until there's no more draft.......it works for me....no reason for you to freeze....but check into a space heater that's energy efficient...we got one made by the Amish with a fake fireplace and beautiful wood for 350 and it uses less than 7 cent an hour to heat....it's just enough to get the chill and dampness out.....that's right...are you on concrete? If so, may I suggest another rug on top of whatever they have down with foam backing? There is nothing worse than concrete floors.......good luck...and ask santa for one of those warming blankies that zip up....

Those oil filled heaters are the safest and most energy efficient. Delonghi I believe was the name of them. Be careful alot of fires have been caused because of space heaters. The outlets are generally 15 amp and cant handle a major load for long periods of time. You should be ok with a 1000 watt of so.

A cheap electric heater from Walmart would be your best bet.

Other than that, make sure you have curtains up, and no air leaks around windows and doors. There are some as low as 13 dollars on thier site http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?search_...

and a small one shouldn't run up the bill much

1) Use incandescent light bulbs instead of (CFL) compact fluorescent bulbs. They throw off some heat.

2) Use a 1960's television with vacuum tubes instead of a newer television. That can elevate the temperature a few degrees too.

Rent To Own Homes - http://renttoownhome.uzaev.com/?fMwJ

contact your landlord and get him to do the work