Landlord requiring space heater - nothing in lease agreement

[Jessica Ronsen]

We are having sub zero windchills and have been opening our cabinets and washing machine and keeping our heat above average (70°ish vs. our normal 60°) to help the pipes from freezing. Unfortunately, this isn’t working and we are working with our landlord to make sure they don’t bust.

He has brought us three different space heaters to set up near the areas (one for each sink, one near the washer) and so far, so good.. however, there is nothing in our lease about running space heaters when it’s cold. There is no temperature minimum. We are happy to keep helping our landlord with this, but running 3 space heaters for long periods of time is adding to our heating bill. Our landlord seemed really put out when we discussed this with him, but he said he would “run some numbers.”

Like I said, we are happy to help with this but I feel like us willing to go above and beyond (these space heaters are also not small in our tiny apartment) and especially with nothing in our lease. Can anyone with experience with this help out? Last month when we ran space heaters it added almost $120 to our electric bill and we simply can’t afford that.