A previous apartment I lived in for several years had electric heat, which wasn't an initial concern when I moved in. I hadn't been renting for that long and I'd never seriously considered the thermal envelope of my living space. However, that first winter I became very aware of what an important consideration a thermal envelope was. It became clear pretty quickly that the windows hadn't been replaced in a very long time and a lot of our heat was escaping out of them, even when the windows were closed. Our cellular shades would wave back and forth on windy days and on the coldest months in the winter our electric bill would quadruple. It seemed really unlikely that our landlord would spend the money to replace the windows when they weren’t the ones paying for lost heat. So the second winter my roommate and I went to the hardware store and bought a window insulation kit for our windows. It wasn’t that big of an investment; it cost maybe $30 for enough supplies to seal all our windows. It took a little time to set up, but it made a difference and was definitely worth it. Our winter electric bills were lower after that because we weren’t losing heat out of the windows. More importantly, we were wasting less energy and lowering our carbon footprint. Even though Franklin gets electricity from renewable sources, working towards energy efficiency is still crucial for overall sustainability.

The window sealing kits were an easy, relatively inexpensive solution to a larger problem that worked for me as a renter. If this is a problem for you and replacing the windows isn't an immediate option, I would consider using a window sealing kit this winter.