Temperature in Tenant's Apt.
I have two family house and rent the top part. I think it is colder upstairs. But I only have thermostat on the first floor. Is there a proper way to control temperature upstairs but so tenant does not have access to it? The heating has a single water pump so I need to heat…
I have two family house and rent the top part. I think it is colder upstairs. But I only have thermostat on the first floor. Is there a proper way to control temperature upstairs but so tenant does not have access to it?
The heating has a single water pump so I need to heat up whole house at the same time.
Same issue here when I was renting a downstairs apartment on bergen street. The landlady called me an idiot for telling her there was no heat in the apartment because her apartment was toasty warm. But once I convinced her to get Keyspan to check it out, it turns out the radiators needed to be bled. Then once the heat started to flow, she set the thermometer to 62 degrees.
We’re upstairs renters like yours. Normally, when it begins to get cold outside (November-ish), we just call the landlord and she turns up the heat. Last year we tried that, and though it was tropical on the ground floor, there was absolutely no heat coming through. Turns out that, like eman1234 pointed out, the (old-school) radiators needed to be bled. After that, it was much, much warmer.
http://www.heatinghelp.com
I had the same situation, but I was a great (or stupid) landlord because I just left the Parlor doors unlocked and let my tenants adjust the thermostat (within a range that we discussed) when they got cold.
yes, my first thought was to check the radiators to make sure they’re working properly, usually it would be hotter upstairs if everything is functioning properly. you could install the thermostat in the tenant’s apartment and put a clear locking box on it. this would measure their heat more accurately and let the tenants know you’re keeping the heat at the right levels. obviously you would want a programmable thermostat so you’re not always barging in. but ultimately you’ll probably want dual zones like MP said.
also make sure that you have bled all the air out of the system…air entrapment on the upper floors in a hydronic system is really common
Bobjohn, it sounds like you’ve got a hot water heating system which is a very flexible and adaptable way to heat a building.
There are several dual-zone thermostats and radiator controls available to deal with a condition such as yours, or it might be as simple as adjusting your radiator shut-off valves at each space until you get it right (don’t try that with steam).
Me:
http://www.GatewayPlumbing.com