I own and live in a twelve-unit apartment building in southern Ontario - Canada. 2 floors up, and one floor 1/2 buried below ground level. Winters can get cold and summers hot.

The building I own was built in the late 60's when nuclear power was going to be too cheap to meter. We have electric baseboard heat. Surprisingly we have r12 insulation in the walls and flat roof. Below grade there is Styrofoam insulation on 1x1 lattice - I believe around R5. We have double pane "sliders".

We had a foundation leak a few years back. While they were digging out about 1/3 of the foundation, I had them put in insulation on the outside of the building - I believe it was R7.  The tenant whose insulation was upgraded with insulation on the outside indicated major increases in comfort and ease of heating her unit. We recently had the roof replaced. We arranged the roof to be upgraded from r12 to r24.

A number of similar buildings have replaced their windows with modern double pane windows. We have not - instead we spent our money on upgrading the roof.

We usually do not turn on heat in our unit until the temperature is well below 0 outside. We do not shut our windows until the temperature is below 0 outside. When we heat we either use a space heater and heat one room - or we turn on the heat when company is coming over, or when we are ill. We like to keep the temperature around 12C overnight and around 16C during the day. With the south facing windows and the units above and below us, our apartment will heat beyond that even on very cold winter days.

Our tenants typically will heat to maybe 27 or 28, and wear shorts and short sleeve shirts indoors. When I need to do work in someone's unit, typically I will turn off the heat, open a window, do work, shut the window and turn the heat back on.

Cooling is done by window air conditioners. In the summer tenants will typically cool into the low 20's. Some form of cooling is required, especially in the south facing units as temperatures will go into the mid to low 30's on some days.

_{aspiring to genteel poverty}