As below-freezing temperatures hit the city, staying inside is one way to stay safe from the cold.

But the frigid air isn’t the only risk to safety in the winter. Often-used tactics to stay warm indoors come with their own dangers, like potential fires or carbon monoxide poisoning.

THE CITY spoke with experts to find out how to heat your apartment safely this winter. Keep these hazards in mind:

Beware: Your oven and stove can’t double as a furnace

When it’s cold out, New Yorkers resort to using appliances like their stove or oven to try and heat their homes. But these appliances are not meant to be used this way and can be dangerous, said Jessica Bellinger, a Legal Aid attorney who works with tenants in The Bronx.

“They do all these things that everyone knows are unsafe,” she said, “but the alternative is being really cold so they do it anyway.”

Running your oven or stove can start a fire, but the bigger risk with them is carbon monoxide poisoning, said Captain Michael Kozo, the commanding officer of the Fire Safety Education Unit of the FDNY.

“A lot of things can go wrong,” added Kozo. “You don’t want to use any of these appliances to heat your home.”

Carbon monoxide is a gas that’s released during the incomplete burning of fuel — usually when gas-powered heating systems like stoves, furnaces or boilers don’t work properly. Colorless and odorless, excessive levels of carbon monoxide can produce flu-like symptoms like nausea, dizziness, headache and fatigue.

In some cases, carbon monoxide poisoning can cause severe illness and even death. This December, a Queens resident was taken to the hospital in critical condition after carbon monoxide exposure in her home, which FDNY said did not have a carbon monoxide detector.

Because you can’t smell or see carbon monoxide, it’s really important to have working carbon monoxide and smoke detectors in your apartment. Without one, “there’s no other way for you to detect that there’s carbon monoxide in your home,” said Kozo.

New York City mandates that property owners install carbon monoxide and smoke detectors in every apartment, but it’s the tenant’s responsibility to test the detectors and make sure they’re working.

If your carbon monoxide detector goes off, open all your windows, leave your home immediately and call 911. In the winter, go to a friend’s house, public library or community center while you wait in order to stay warm. 

Proceed with caution: Using a space heater correctly 

If you want to use a space heater, it’s incredibly important to know how to use it correctly, experts said.

“We see a big spike in home heating fires in December, January, February,” said Kozo of the FDNY.

Home heating fires in New York are usually the result of a number of heating methods — “but space heaters definitely trump the others.”

Extension cords and power strips are only able to accommodate so much electrical current. If you connect a space heater, the cord or strip could overheat and cause a fire.

What’s more, power strips usually have multiple items plugged into them, further increasing the risk. “If you took a typical space heater and plugged it into a power strip, you’re already using more power than [the power strip] is rated to give,” said Kozo.

Earlier this month, FDNY posted on X that a two-alarm fire in Staten Island that left a baby in critical condition was the result of a space heater plugged into a power strip.

Space heaters also must be placed correctly in your apartment. There should be at least three feet between your space heater and anything flammable — that includes your bed.

When in doubt, remember: “A space heater needs space,” Kozo said.

They should also be placed on a level surface and in a low-traffic area so they don’t get knocked over.

According to Kozo, the ideal way to use a space heater is to warm up the room you want to be in before you need to be there. For example, turn on the space heater in your bedroom before you go to bed. Once your bedroom warms up, turn the space heater off and unplug it before you go to sleep.

You should never run a space heater while you’re sleeping.

A lot of this same advice goes for electric blankets: use them to pre-heat your bed rather than run them while you’re asleep, check for lab-tested labels and follow the instructions on the manual to make sure you’re storing the blanket correctly.

Preserve: Keep heat in

According to the New York Housing Authority, which runs over 2,400 buildings for low- and moderate-income families, there are some steps you can take to try and preserve heat in your apartment.

One major place that heat gets out is windows. Always keep windows fully closed and remove or cover your window air conditioning unit if you have one. According to the mayor’s public engagement unit, you can also try hanging heavy curtains to block drafts or even covering your windows in shrink wrap — though you might have to venture out to a hardware store, since shrink wrap is different from the plastic wrap you likely have at home.

You should also make sure that there isn’t any furniture blocking the radiator. Heat can’t get out if it’s trapped behind your couch!

When in doubt, layer dry clothing, drink warm beverages and eat warm food, and don’t drink alcohol — even though it makes you feel warmer, it’s actually decreasing your core temperature.

Remember: Landlords are required to provide heat

It’s illegal to keep an apartment below a certain temperature in the winter in New York City. During “heat season,” which is between Oct. 1 and May 31, your landlord is required to stick to these rules:

• If it’s colder than 55 degrees outside during the day — between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. — the inside temperature of your apartment has to be above 68 degrees.
• Between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., your apartment must be over 62 degrees — no matter how cold it is outside.

Landlords are also mandated to make sure you have hot water all year round.

What can I do if my apartment is too cold?

If your apartment feels colder than that, read THE CITY’s guide on steps you can take to fix it, like approaching and talking to your landlord, calling 311, and, if necessary, taking your landlord to Housing Court. Whatever you do, make sure you have receipts: buy your own thermometer and take the temperature in your apartment multiple times a day (and night) and write it down.

Bellinder at Legal Aid says complaints about heat are “very, very, very common” in The Bronx where she works. And dealing with a negligent building owner is notoriously difficult.

“The landlords and the city have a duty of care that they’re not abiding by,” said Bellinder. “The landlords are not maintaining the heat at a temperature that is comfortable for tenants.”

If you report a heat complaint to 311, the Department of Housing Preservation will notify your landlord and tell them to turn on the heat. If the landlord does not, they’ll be issued a violation. But legal cases to resolve violations can take months to litigate  — and often, by the time they’re finished, heat season is over.

“It’s just this pattern of enforcement but not actually getting to the root of the problem,” said Bellinder. “And landlords basically treat the cost of civil penalties as if it’s just the cost of doing business.”