How to Keep Your House Warm in Winter Without the Heating On
Our Thessaloniki apartment had landlord-controlled heating that came on three weeks after we needed it.
What followed was an accidental education in how much warmth a home already generates and wastes.
Most of it escaping through gaps, cold floors, and bare windows before anyone feels it.
These are the fixes that actually moved the needle, in order of impact.
Step 1: Stop the Heat Escaping First
Before generating any extra warmth, plug the leaks. This is where most people go wrong.
| Problem | Fix | Cost | Renter safe? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gap under external doors | Draft excluder or rolled towel | Under €5 | Yes |
| Cold single-glazed windows | Thermal curtains on tension rod | €20 to €40 | Yes |
| Draughty window frames | Self-adhesive foam strips | Under €5 | Yes |
| Cold hard floors | Large rug with underlay | €30 to €80 | Yes |
| Open unused chimney | Chimney balloon | €15 to €20 | Yes |
| Unheated adjacent rooms | Close every door between them | Free | Yes |
| Transparent window heat loss | Self-adhesive window film | Under €15 | Yes |
The single highest-impact change: thermal curtains on a tension rod over a cold window. In an older rental apartment, this one fix makes a bigger difference than almost anything else on this list. The curtain must reach the floor and overlap the frame on both sides or it loses most of its effect.
Step 2: Generate Warmth Efficiently
Once the leaks are plugged, heat the person not the room.
Electric Blanket
Pre-warm the bed for 20 minutes before getting in, then switch it off. Costs pennies per night and removes the need to heat the bedroom at all.
Heated Throw
Direct warmth for evenings on the sofa. Far more efficient than a space heater because you are warming a body not cubic metres of air.
Oil-Filled Portable Radiator
The best option for warming one specific room. Heats slowly, retains heat long after switching off, silent, safe. Run it in the room you actually use rather than throughout the house.
Hot Water Bottle
Underrated. A bottle in the bed 20 minutes before sleep, or held against the lower back on a cold evening, is genuine warmth for the cost of boiling a kettle.
Layer Properly
Three thin layers trap more warm air than one thick one. Wool and fleece base layers outperform cotton at the same thickness. Warm feet make the whole body feel warmer. Deal with this before you try to warm the room.
Step 3: Use the Warmth Your Home Already Makes
| Source | What to do | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| Oven after cooking | Leave door open after switching off (electric only) | Warms the kitchen for free |
| Sunlight | Open curtains on south-facing windows during daylight, close the moment sun goes | Passive solar gain |
| Body heat | Close all doors, concentrate in one room | Two people in a closed room raise the temperature several degrees |
| Cooking | Simmer soups and stews earlier in the evening | Heats the kitchen while making dinner |
| Simmering pot | A pot of water with citrus, cinnamon and cloves on the hob | Warmth plus scent, our full recipe is here |
Step 4: Make the Room Feel Warmer
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Temperature and perceived warmth are not the same thing. These changes cost nothing or very little and make a cold room feel significantly more comfortable at the same air temperature.
Lighting: Switch the overhead light off. Use floor lamps and table lamps with warm-toned bulbs (2700K or below). Warm light makes a room feel physically warmer. This is a documented perceptual effect, not placebo.
Candles: Four candles produce roughly the heat of a 40-watt bulb, which is not much. The warmth they create perceptually is larger. A cluster of pillar candles on the coffee table changes how a room feels before the thermometer moves.
Textiles:
- Throws and blankets over every sofa and armchair
- Cushions in warm-toned fabrics
- A sheepskin or thick pile rug underfoot
- Heavy curtains drawn by 4pm
A room with these in place feels warmer to sit in than the same room at the same temperature without them. This is not decoration for its own sake. It is comfort engineering.
Colour: Warm tones read as warmer. If you cannot repaint, add warm-toned cushions, throws, and accessories. The effect is real enough to be worth doing.
The Renter Checklist
Everything above is renter-friendly. Here is the priority order for a rental specifically, ranked by impact per euro spent:
- Thermal curtains on tension rods: highest impact, fully reversible, no drilling
- Draft excluders: cheap, immediate, removes all traces on moving day
- Self-adhesive window draught strips: peel off cleanly, make old windows significantly less draughty
- Large rug on cold tile or stone floor: especially relevant in Greek and Mediterranean apartments
- Window insulation film: invisible from the street, peels off cleanly
- Chimney balloon: if you have an unused decorative fireplace, this alone can transform a draughty room
- Close doors consistently: free, immediate, and almost nobody does this properly
If you can only do one thing: thermal curtain on the coldest window. Everything else builds from there.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest way to keep a house warm without heating? Draft excluders, thermal curtains, and closing doors between heated and unheated rooms. All three cost almost nothing and address the root cause: heat escaping before it does any work.
Do rugs actually make a room warmer? Yes. A rug over a cold floor stops the floor drawing heat out of your body and adds an insulating layer between the cold surface and the room air. A thick rug with an underlay is measurably more effective than a thin one.
How do you insulate a rental apartment without drilling? Tension rod thermal curtains, self-adhesive draught strips on window frames, window film, chimney balloons, and rugs on cold floors all work without touching the building structure permanently.
Does closing doors really help? Significantly. Two people in a closed room with draft excluders in place will raise the room temperature several degrees through body heat alone within an hour. Leaving doors open to unheated spaces cancels most of this.
How do you stay warm at night without the heating on? Electric blanket to pre-warm the bed (then switch it off), hot water bottle for sustained warmth, heavier duvet or an extra blanket, wool socks. Close the bedroom door. A closed bedroom with two people in it stays warm enough without any heating at all once the bed is warm.
Do candles heat a room? A small amount. Four candles equal roughly a 40-watt bulb in terms of heat output. Their bigger effect is perceptual. Warm flickering light makes a room feel warmer than it is, which reduces the temperature you actually need to feel comfortable.
The October we spent without central heating, I put a draft excluder at the living room door, hung thermal curtains, put a rug down on the tile, switched to floor lamps, and lit candles. The thermometer did not change. How the room felt changed completely.
Stop the heat leaving first. Everything else is much easier after that.
For the full renter-friendly upgrade guide, the what you can and cannot change in a rental post covers everything worth doing in a lease.
And for the simmering pot that warms and scents the kitchen at the same time, the full recipe is here.
That’s all I have for today! I relly hope you found this article helpful and interesting. If you have any questions, lemme know in the comment section below and I will be more than happy to get back to you!
Until next time,
Stay safe,
I’m Katerina Lithopoulou, co-creator of DIY Cozy Living. I’ve always loved the little things that make a space feel special. With a background in language and a passion for photography and cozy design, I enjoy turning everyday inspiration into simple ideas people can actually use.
My motto: “Cozy isn’t a trend — it’s a feeling.”
