r/Glasgow Tools

What floor of the building are you on? Middle floors are generally easier to keep warm since you've got the flats below putting out heat and the flats above providing insulation.

Those tenements have thick stone walls so they do actually hold heat pretty good, your pain points are gonna be the windows since double glazing is rare. Close your shutters if you have them, that should eliminate some of the draft and heat loss. If you want to still be getting some natural light, get some big sheets of clear plastic and gaffer tape them over the window bays, that will create a layer of insulating air between the flat and the window. Boom, bootleg double glazing.

Another thing to consider is the door to the close, they're rarely weatherproof and tend to be drafty. Try and plug the drafts with a draft excluder.

Finally, start triaging where you want to heat. Keep doors between rooms closed and focus on heating the rooms you spend the most time in, when you spend time in them. I'm gonna assume here that your heating is electric like most tenements. Electric heaters on a timer, have your bedroom heated up for an hour before your bed time and an hour before you wake up. For the bathroom, keep a regular schedule for when you want to shower (morning or evening as you prefer) and have a heater on timer for an hour before that. That way you're only heating one room throughout the day.

These are all hard lessons learned in a badly insulated flat as a broke-ass student. May they serve you well.