Keeping Warm Through Winter in Student Accommodation

A Johannesburg winter is characterised by being cold and dry with nighttime temperatures often dropping below 5 degrees. With that in mind keeping warm through the winter is a bit of a struggle and let’s be honest it’s exam time, you don’t exactly have the energy or time to try and figure out how to stay warm. With that in mind here are some budget friendly tips on keeping warm in the winter. 

Trapping heat in your room 

“Heat trapping” is a great low-cost way of keeping your room warmer. First make sure to close your doors and windows to stop the heat from escaping and block the cold form coming in.  

During the nighttime make sure to have your curtains closed so that heat doesn’t escape. Glass is not a very good insulator, and so heat will leach out form the glass and closing you curtain can help circumvent this. Whilst closing your curtains can keep heat trapped during the night it is still important to open your curtain during the day and allow the sunlight to warm your room. Just close them before sunset and you should be okay. 

Pro tip: Thicker curtains may help you trap heat of effectively. At KCI, we provide curtains for you. However, if you feel that you would like thicker curtains then feel free to come let us know in the office and we will take the curtains down so you can hang up your thicker ones. 

If you have a draft in you room coming from the gap between the door and the floor, then you could try blocking it by putting a rolled-up towel in form of the gap or you could buy a draft stopper. 

Being dressed for the cold & Keeping warm

There is an adage that says there is no such thing as bad weather, there is only being badly dressed for the weather. With that here are some ways to dress warm without having to turn on a heater. The trick here is to layer up your clothes and accessories. You’d want your outfit to comprise of something like this: 

• Base layer: Thermal underwear, wool socks, long-sleeved vest and/or long johns.
• Middle layer: long pants and a log-sleeved top, wool or fleece lined if you have it.
• Outer layer: Sweater, hoodie, jersey, jacket or coat.
• Accessories: Beanie for your head, Scarf for you neck and gloves for your hands. If you are typing or working and your hands still feel cold, it might be worth getting soe fingerless gloves. 

It might be worth getting reuseable hand warmers (thermochemistry hand warmers) that use a chemical reaction to generate heat. They are effective small and so easy to keep in your pockets, reusable and do not require any electricity.  

Sleep Warm 

A cold pillow is great, but a cold bed in winter… not so much. To keep warm while sleeping try to layer two or three thinner blankets or have one thick blanket that you use. Remember that you don’t want too many layers because you don’t want to overheat and wake up in a sweat. Sleep in long PJs and if you want to feel even warmer then you could sleep with a hoodie on with the hood up and try to sleep with your socks on to keep your feet warm. 

If you don’t have an electric blanket, then you can use a hot water bottle. Heat one up and put it between your sheets 30 minutes before you go to bed by the time you get in your bed it will be perfectly toasty. If you still find that your bed is too cold when you get in at the end of the day then try putting a blanket under you fitted sheet for an added layer for insulation. 

Finally, it’s always a good idea to have a cup of tea before you go to bed. It will calm your mind so you can fall asleep quickly and it will raise your core body temperature so you will feel warmer. 

Food and drink can also keep you warm 

Speaking of tea before bed, the food and drinks you choose to consume can also make you feel warmer.  

Warm drinks like tea and hot chocolate can make you feel warmer by raising your core body temperature. And whether it’s summer or winter a cup of coffee in the morning is always a good idea. Think about keeping a flask by your desk so you can have a hot drink all day without having to make many trips to the kitchen. Comfort foods are always a good idea, soups, stews, pasta, pap and curries. These are all warming to the body, filling, nutritious and delicious. Having a warm meal before bed can also aid in bringing up you core temp and making you feel warmer. 

Now, it’s cold and it’s exam season. Naturally you might want to go and decompress from the stress by going out to grab drinks with your mates. That is completely fine just try and avoid too much alcohol before bed. Alcohol is a vasodilator, meaning that it dilates your blood vessels and causes blood to flow toward your extremities. In so doing you end up feeling warm, but you are losing heat and cooling your core body temperature. 

Be savvy with electricity 

It is expected that in winter the power bill will go up. This is because suddenly you are taking hotter showers, you are using your heater and electric blanket, and the sun rises later and sets earlier and so you have your lights on for a longer period of time.  

Try to be savvy in the way you use electricity. If you have an electric blanket, then turn it on an hour before you go to sleep and make sure you turn it off when you get into bed. If you have a heater, then make sure that it not running all day. Have it on and when the room gets warm turn it off, or turn it down, you can turn it back up if you notice the room getting colder. 

Make sure you prepare for loadshedding. Now if you are in a KCI unit you don’t have to worry about light. We have provided our tenants with a study lamp that has a loadshedding rechargeable bulb. These bulbs last up to 4 hours while the power is out. So, in the event of loadshedding your only concern is staying warm, and this is where the blankets and hoodies come in clutch. 

Think about your neighbours 

Living in student accommodation, means living in a community and sharing resources. Every year at the beginning of winter we have an influx of tenants saying that there is no hot water. That is not necessarily the case. 

At the beginning of winter people often start taking longer and hotter showers to get warm. I don’t blame them, and I can’t fault them because a hot shower on a cold day feels great and it is effective in keeping you warm. However, although you may not be sharing a bathroom, the geysers are communal and if we have many people taking long hot showers then we’ll have just as many who must go without hot water.  

Therefore, while a hot shower is great for getting warmer all we ask is that you also think about your neighbour and how they might not have any hot water because a few people used it all up.  If you do recognise that you haven’t been getting any hot water, then come tell us at the office and we will remind everyone that they are sharing resources and should try to be more consecrate about how much they use. 

Final Thoughts

Staying warm during a Johannesburg winter doesn’t need to be expensive or complicated. With the right mix of habits—layering clothing, trapping heat indoors, eating warm meals, and being mindful of shared resources—you can stay comfortable and focused, even during exam season. If you’re looking for well-managed, secure, and student-focused accommodation that understands your needs in every season, apply for a unit with KCI Management today. Experience a space that’s designed to support your success—winter and beyond.