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November 24, 2007
Landlords: what temps do you set your thermostats to?
Please let me know. This is for a small non-rent-stabilized building that we do not occupy with almost market rate tenants. We have it at 68 during the day (6am-11pm) and 62 at night. So this is above the legal guidelines for duration and temps at night. Is this nuts? Only 1 set of tenants are complaining. And they probably moved out of one of those big buildings that just pump heat all the time. But they are driving us nuts. Should we be turning up the heat to keep them hot and happy? What do you do? Thanks.
Comments
Sounds fine, let them move out.
Posted by: guest at November 24, 2007 9:47 PM
Thanks. Actually just checked and we really have the daytime temps set to go up to 68 between 5am and 11pm. I'm wondering can some landlords afford to keep their thermostats set for 68, 24 hours a day? I can't justify that on so many levels. But perhaps that is what happens elsewhere?
Posted by: guest at November 24, 2007 10:04 PM
A lot of old buildings are very unevenly heated. The brownstone co-op I live in has the residents of lower floors freezing while upper floor dwellers have their windows wide open because they are so hot. You can definitely hire a heating engineer to advise on what can be done (which we did many years ago) but the fixes suggested were expensive. We had the lower floor residents do a lot of winterizing of windows with weatherstripping etc. because they are old and leaky which has helped a bit. Good luck.
Posted by: guest at November 24, 2007 10:12 PM
What is your thermostat set to in your other house...the one that you live in?
Freeze those thin skinned tenants until they move out. Maybe you can find some eskimos for tenants. Then you can raise the rent, and lower the thermostat some more.
Posted by: guest at November 24, 2007 10:17 PM
I didn't know people who sold blubber were rich.
You learn something new every day.
Wow!
Posted by: Ysabelle at November 24, 2007 10:29 PM
just tell them you have it at the legal limit and everyone is fine and your not gonna destroy the environment for them.
Posted by: armchairwarrior at November 24, 2007 11:08 PM
Calm down, land-owning-gentry haters. The guy isn't Darth Vadar because he has whiny-ass tenants and wants to keep his fuel consumption under control.
OP, just because your thermostat is set on 68 doesn't mean it is making the whole building 68, right? How's the weatherstripping, insulation, storm windows, etc.?
By the way, I hate the idea of keeping the house just as warm at night as during the day, totally aside from energy consumption issues. Cool in the nighttime means warm under the covers, know what I'm sayin'?
Posted by: guest at November 25, 2007 12:06 AM
I have had the same problem with some of my tenants in the past. Uneven heat is a real possibility so get some info, give them some thermometers and have them record the temperature and see if they have a real complaint and fix the problem with your heat if there is one. You may be following the law in the amount of heat you are providing but that may not be good enough for your tenants. Over time I've come to understand that people have different ideas of what a comfortable heat level is. It's best to try to come to an understanding with them. Think about it? Do you want them to start using a space heater that could be a fire risk? Do you want them to start using their gas oven to heat their apartment? Do you want them playing with the thermostat? I once saw an ice cube tray sitting on top of a lock box of a thermostat. So I think tenants are capable of anything, especially if you're not around. I'm sure you would like to just give them sweatshirts for Christmas, I know I would. Keep your cool and talk to them.
Posted by: Rick at November 25, 2007 7:17 AM
The law doesn't control what you set the thermostat to; it specifies what the temperature in the rooms must be. If you have one thermostat, some units are probably cooler than your setting.
Also, if I were paying a market rate, I would want to be comfortable, not to have the legal minimum heat. Is your house set to 68 degrees?
And yes, I'm a small-time landlord myself.
- Tim
Posted by: guest at November 25, 2007 7:17 AM
Just to answer the rhetorical questions (altho I am not the original poster), I keep my thermostat at exactly where OP does - 68 during the day and 62 at night. You mean some of you put it higher? My garden apartment (which I rent out) used to be colder, but I finally reinsulated the steam pipes in the basement which has made everything more comfortable.
Posted by: Putnamdenizen at November 25, 2007 7:41 AM
I have the temperature debate with my husband. For some reason 69 makes a big difference to me during the day. He wants it to be 68.. so now we set it at 69 during the day and 60 at night... we have big fluffy down duvets so the cold at night is fine.
Posted by: CrownGardener at November 25, 2007 9:27 AM
Glad you aren't MY landlord. In my old brownstone coop, 65 at night was plenty cold enough for us - lots of heat gets lost through the walls and windows, as these buildings were built essentially uninsulated.
68 or 69 in the day heated us fine - but that doesn't mean it makes YOUR building warm enough. You need to actually measure the temperature.
Sheesh - if you're going to talk about being in compliance with the law, you should at least know what you are talking about - it is the actual temperature, not the thermostat, as pointed out above, that matters.
Posted by: guest at November 25, 2007 9:27 AM
65/55--one family, so no one can tell me what temp to set my thermostat.
68 is for wimps :-)
Posted by: Bob Marvin at November 25, 2007 9:28 AM
Good one Bob!
Posted by: guest at November 25, 2007 10:12 AM
Turn it up and raise the rent.
Posted by: guest at November 25, 2007 11:04 AM
You might be able to ad a temporary fuel surcharge for heat to the rent.
On the basis that the price of oil went thru the roof and it is a hardship to maintain the building properly.
Posted by: Ysabelle at November 25, 2007 11:58 AM
My garden unit tenant in our brownstone (we live upstairs) has been very unhappy about the heat as well. And we actually keep ours a bit higher than yours up to 70+ in the morning and never lower than 68, even at night. I looked into it and called the city, and your legal obligation is for the temperature in the unit to actually be 68 degrees anywhere in the unit from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. -- what you have your thermo set for doesn't matter one bit to the city. If your tenants get wise and call the city, and you are found in violation, the fine is $500 per day. The temp in the garden unit was dipping down below 68 degrees several times during the day. For us, I was unwilling to turn the heat up any higher to guarntee 68 degree temp all day in that unit, so I bought my tenant two state of the art space heaters for about $60 bucks each, and gave her a $50 allowance for electricity for Dec., Jan., and Feb. Now the ball is in her court. The way I read the city regs this is legit.
Posted by: Harlemite249 at November 25, 2007 2:53 PM
Your settings are fine. Make a visit to the apartments (preferably on a very cold day) to check the heat for yourself. Don't be surprised if the cold tenant answers the door in a t-shirt.
Posted by: guest at November 25, 2007 3:04 PM
OP here. Thanks for your comments. Just to clarify the thermostat is on a much colder floor than this apartment, so it definitely is much higher than the number on the screen (68/62.) We just turned the temp up a few degrees to buy ourselves some peace. We have new double pane windows, a new efficient boiler and have had master plumber in to optimize our whole system in the past.
Posted by: guest at November 26, 2007 9:46 AM
Count me as a wimp. I hate being cold. I live in my building and I am cold below 70 and very happy at 72. Even having set it at that level, last year my top floor tenants were trying not to be wimps and complain about being cold, until they did and I couldn't understand it. I went up there and it WAS cold. Reason, I had the wrong valves on the radiators which during transitional times heated my apartment nicely (thermostat was there) but didn't keep the boiler on long enough to take the heat all the way to the top. I changed the valves and everybody is happy. Ditto to others comments - give them what you give yourself. You don't want people heating their own spaces. This assumes that the rents are covering your costs. Always negotiate a rate that will pay you enough to take care of people.
Posted by: donatella at November 26, 2007 2:51 PM
Remember that the thermostat and the temperatur can be very different. I keep a little thermometer next to the thermostat and it routinely shows that the thermostat show a temperature about 3-5 degrees under the ambient temperature read by the thermometer.
Posted by: guest at November 27, 2007 11:01 AM
68/66 is reasonable. you should check your radiators - shut off valves and air valves - try to balance the heat. 62 is too low for market rate tenants. It is true everyone is different, one person will be cold and another hot no matter what you do, but at 62, you might have trouble keeping them if that's your goal.
Posted by: guest at November 27, 2007 4:36 PM
I HAVE A LEGAL 2 FAM HOUSE 2 SEPERATE T-STATS OIL IS SO EXPENSIVE,I(THE LAND LORD PAYS FOR THIS,NOT SEC 8,BUT A BEAUTIFUL HOME) THE RENT DOES NOT COVER MY MORTGAGE PAYMENT,PLUS IM STUCK WITH THIS HIGH OIL BILL,THEY ARE BLEEDING ME DRY.WHAT CAN I DO TO CONTROL THE HEATING SYSTEM,WITH OUT SPENDING LOTS OF MONEY?? SIGHNED
HEATED!!!
Posted by: guest at April 4, 2008 10:10 PM
I JUST SENT THE COMMMENT BOUT THE HEAT SIGHNED HEATED. I DONT LIVE IN THE HOUSE,I CANT CONTROL ANYTHING FROM THE OUTSIDE
Posted by: guest at April 4, 2008 10:14 PM
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