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Comment by frankus | Hacker News Reader

One of the pitfalls is split incentives. Builders and landlords pay for the insulation/appliances but buyers/renters pay for the utilities.

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Yup. I pay $3300/mo for an nyc apartment in a 2003 building. You’d like to imagine in a city with very cold winters and very hot summers they sprung for double paned glass. Nope. Single paned, poorly sealed glass means our thermostat is turned past 80 in the winter. If the living room (less window exposure) where the thermostat is isn’t 85 the rooms can be below 60.

Have you tried putting the plastic film on the inside of the window frame to create a dead air space? I've always wondered how well that works...

It works really well. Get the stuff you use a hairdryer to shrink so it tightens like a drum and has no creases.

You can also put it on the outside to give yourself 'triple glazing'. It makes a really big difference to the heating required to stay warm.

Looks a bit tacky though.

Doesn't it lock in moisture and promote mold?

You'd like to imagine that, in a climate with very cold winters, the building code would require high efficiency windows.

It's completely mind boggling that anyone was allowed to build housing with single pane windows in 2003.

At that sort of heating requirement, wouldn’t it save you money to replace the window yourself? Presumably you’d need to get permission from the landlord though.

This is true of insurance for homes as well. Be very careful of what home you buy in places like Florida where construction type can have a huge impact on your premium. (I’m talking 2-3x on an already high cost) Even just the years your home was built can have a 50%+ impact on your premium! (Some years regulations were strong, years later the regulations were taken down, and then came back... etc)

If the cost between a 2002 and 2003 home is nothing and they’re basically the same, you might find one is much cheaper to insure... (I don’t recall exact years but I can look it up if people care)

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