Even Heating
I am a renter in a beautiful 2 family brownstone. The landlord lives on the garden and parlor floors. My family lives on the 2nd and 3rd floor. My issue, is that the landlord has not installed zoned heating in the building. The thermostat is located in his unit. While his apartment reads: 72-75 degrees,…
I am a renter in a beautiful 2 family brownstone. The landlord lives on the garden and parlor floors. My family lives on the 2nd and 3rd floor. My issue, is that the landlord has not installed zoned heating in the building. The thermostat is located in his unit. While his apartment reads: 72-75 degrees, my unit is regularly below 65 degrees, especially on the 3rd floor where the bedrooms are. I have a 2 year old, and a newborn on the way, and need to resolve this heating issue with my landlord, who refuses to turn up the heat, given that there is no heating issues in his until.
Does anyone have any experience with a similar issue like this? How can we best resolve.
1. My landlord getting too hot?
2. My family getting too cold?
Another thing to note, heat is included in my lease. Expert advise from the community will be greatly appreciated!
“He is a new brownstone owner, who is more trusting of his thermostat reading than what my husband and I are telling him.”
He doesn’t have to take your word for it. If he’s not believing you, invite him the choice to install a remote thermometer, or to come up to test himself when you tell him it’s cold. His other option would be for you to call 311 and have the authorities do the test for him and send him a report along with whatever legal action they think appropriate.
The law is:
http://www.housingnyc.com/html/resources/dhcr/dhcr15.html
Time of If Outside Temp. Inside Temp
Day is less than: must be more than:
6:00 am – 10:00 pm 55° 68°
10:00 pm – 6:00 am 40° 55°
This is pretty straightforward. If he’s not making these numbers, then he has a problem that he has to fix. Either he can listen to you, or listen to the city.
There are helpful technical suggestions on this website on how to fix a bad heating system. But step 1 is for your landlord to take your complaint seriously. This is the legal reason he should.
Do your radiators make noise when they are on? Do they hiss or bang? If this is a 1 pipe system the landlord will most likely need to replace several Thermostatic valves on his radiators. The most likely cause of the problem is that the valves on their radiators never close(They are supposed to close once the steam heats the valves), and the steam never goes up to your radiators
perhaps just change the release valves on your upper floor to ones with bigger opening.
Check and see what size they are now…and just upsize. Doesn’t cost that much.
You can tell if you have a one or two-pipe system by looking at your radiator. Is there only one pipe going into it, or do you have one pipe going in and one pipe going out? If you have a two-pipe system, you’ll also likely have a thermostatic trap (steam trap) near the floor on the outlet side.
Hi Elton, I am not sure if its a one or two pipe system, as I’ve never seen the boiler room. I am the renter, and am doing some research to take back to the owner, so he can responsibly resolve this issue. He is a new brownstone owner, who is more trusting of his thermostat reading than what my husband and I are telling him. Does this make a big difference and why?
Also, thanks vinca for the alternate post, and owner12, for the recommendation for the remote thermometer.
Do you have one- or two-pipe steam?
Below’s a link to a past thread about an uneven heating problem similar to yours. To use the search feature on the Forum, go to the top right of the page: http://bstoner.wpengine.com/forum/archives/2009/10/unbalanced_heat.php#comments
A low cost thermometer with a remote sensor will allow your landlord to monitor the temperature in your apartment from the comfort of his warm home. I recently purchased one and use it in my four story building and the sensor’s range is quite good. 65 degree’s is unacceptable especially with young children.
Another arrangement is to use a space heater and bill the landlord for the difference in your regular electric bill. I have employed this method in the past, when heating the entire building for 1 cold apartment was not practical…….
The heating system in the building is steam heat. We have radiators thoughout the apartment. They all work, but again, given that the thermostat is in his unit, he is not getting an accurate read throughout the entire building. If we reach an impasse, 311 maybe an option, but I’d rather not report him. I’m sure there must be plenty of alternate options to look into.