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Question:

Can I ask my landlord to put better insulation in the roof?

Finally remembering to do so, before my family and I left the house for approximately 4 hours, I turned off the heat before leaving. When we came home I turned it back on, but was shocked to see that the temperature had dropped 4 degrees in that time. 4 degrees in just under 4 hours seems like a lot of heat loss, does it not? I've seen the insulation in our roof and it's just that sawdust looking stuff spread everywhere. I feel like I'm paying a lot of unnecessary dollars for heating: the air does kick on every hour or two and we keep the thermostat at 68.Is it reasonable for me to talk to my landlord about this problem and getting better insulation in the ceiling, and maybe in the roof? (the master bedroom, on the far corner of the house, is always 2-3 degrees below the rest of the house). Are my expectations to not lose a degree of heat or more per hour unreasonable? Would a typical landlord consider this a problem worth discussing?

Answer:

Yes, you can ask, but don't expect him to seriously entertain the idea of actually doing it. You rented the house at it was. The landlord has no obligation to spend money on improving it so you can save money. That amount of heat loss in that time is insignificant. If I turned my heat off for four hours in the just-around-freezing weather we are having right now, I would expect my house to cool off a lot more than 4 degrees. My furnace is coming on for a few minutes at least every 15 minutes to keep the place at just over 60F. I have the lowest heating bill of anyone I know.
The roof (assume pitched) doesn't need insulating it's above the attic above the ceilings of all the rooms that need 12 inch of mineral wool insulation to stop heat loss (you may have less thickness not all insulation is to the correct standards) Also if as I suspect the walls of your home are timber with shiplap (and not solid brick / cavity walls) they also require insulation top up. From a google search there is state wide Government grants for insulating homes, could be available in your state? using blown insulation to walls/ceilings. If you decide to install it yourself the payback is excellent -in 12 months depending on fuel cost and what existing insulation (from your description minimal) The landlord could be entitled to increase your lease costs if he takes the work on as he has greatly improved the thermal insulation which will reduce your heating costs and make his property more valuable to lease.
We don't know what kind of climate you are in - or the age/construction of the dwelling.......but by standards here, 4 degrees heat loss in 4 hours is insignificant... For comparison.....we have a two-story, 1800 sq ft modern home in Ohio: the windows are triple-glazed (but there are a lot of them)......the walls have fiberglass bats under 1 inch cedar siding.......our ceilings are acoustical tile over plasterboard with about 2 feet of blown-in fiberglass insulation above them. We have a new, Energy Star gas furnace . . . . in cold weather it cycles on&off at least 10 times an hour.....I am sure that if we were to turn it off, the temps would drop more than 5 degrees per HOUR......gas bills about $250 a month in winter. You are fortunate to have so little heat loss in yours.......while the "sawdust looking" insulation doesn't sound very cutting-edge, I can't imagine anything would reduce the heat loss and be cost-effective. If buildings didn't cool-off in cold weather, we'd just heat rocks in the sun and bring them inside !!!!!!!
I never turn my heat or ac off when I leave the apartment. I'd say you can ask all you want but the landlord won't be listening to you. And I don't think 4 degree drop is a lot. And it does depend on what the weather outside is. If I had 68 degrees indoors I'd always have a cold. What is your monthly bill and which part of the country are you in? My bill is around $42 a month. I have insulated draperies, I use only one 40 watt bulb at my place. When it gets cold in here my 40 watt bulb will heat my place.
You can ask and I'm sure the landlord would be happy to have more insulation installed at your expense. There are many factors which contribute to heat loss including how much thermal mass in the home (furnishings, etc.) and how well it absorbs heat, the type of flooring, how well your basement/crawl space is insulated, cold leaks through windows and doors, chimneys, and so on. Then there is the outside ambient temperature to factor in. Personally, I think 4 degrees in 4 hours is very little heat loss. But, that would depend upon what the outside temperature was. Added: The far bedroom is probably the furthest from your heating source. If you have hot water radiant heat and a basement that won't freeze during the toughest times, you can insulate the heating pipes if not already done. Wrapping with newspaper is a cost-effective way of doing it and since the pipe will never get to 451F, there is no danger of it igniting. However, no matter what, the furthest away from the heat source is going to be the coldest. If "far corner" is N, NE, W NW, those are the coldest spots on a house during winter due to lack of sunlight. Here's a tip from my serviceman -- don't turn your furnace too low during the night. There is a break-even point where the energy used to heat up the environment is equal to the energy saved by keeping it at a lower temperature. The range is about 8 degrees on average, but that's here in the NE. This bore out very well last year during a bitterly cold winter that started in October and went well into May when I kept the heat "cranked up" higher at night. I used less fuel than I did the year before, which only had 6 months of normal winter. I used to turn it down to 55 at night, but I turned it down to 62 from 70. I was seriously overdoing it thinking I was doing me and the environment a favor :)

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