Heating Issues
Hi Brownstoners, any insights/ thoughts in this matter would be very helpful, as we are not really sure what to do; I recently moved into a two-bedroom apartment. Our lease agreement requires us to pay for heat and electricity. We have a single-unit boiler that provides us with steam heat through the apartment and we…
Hi Brownstoners, any insights/ thoughts in this matter would be very helpful, as we are not really sure what to do; I recently moved into a two-bedroom apartment. Our lease agreement requires us to pay for heat and electricity. We have a single-unit boiler that provides us with steam heat through the apartment and we regulate the heat with a thermostat in our apartment.
While most of the apartment stays reasonably warm, our master bedroom is freezing – its uninsulated and seems to be unable to keep in room temperatures above 60 degrees. We were quite surprised to see that our heat bill came to $220 and thought there must be some kind of mistake. We mentioned to the landlord that we were thinking about getting in touch with national grid to come check things out but he told me not to tell them that that we have a boiler for heat because he never received permits to install the boiler, and to avoid getting the permits he linked the heat to a meter so it reads like cooking gas. I know nothing about how these meters read, could this be the problem?
Can anybody here offer any advice on the situation? My instinct is to tell the landlord to either lower the rent or to contact the utility company to have them inspect the place to get to the bottom of this … Isnt it his responsibility to make sure the heat sufficiently works in order to keep our bedroom warmer than 60 degrees even if we pay for the heat?
Thanks in advance.
Any room on an extension is going to be cold. Likewise, a rowhouse costs less to heat than a corner or freestanding house.
if you live above a garage make sure you have a carbon monoxide detector w/your smoke detector
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-12-28/justice/florida.motel.death_1_carbon-monoxide-motel-room-garage?_s=PM:CRIME
bedroom is above a garage is the answer. if you can’t insulate the garage ceiling rugs might help.
Isn’t the cooking gas rate significantly higher than the heating gas rate?
Get an electric blanket. Once you use one you’ll never go back.
Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. I definitely need to insulate the bedroom better — going to get heavy curtains, rugs etc. (there are 4 largish windows in the bedroom and it is above a garage while the rest of the apartment is above a restaurant) The landlord agreed to take a look to make sure the system is working properly and to knock some of the rent off if we cant fix the problem.
thanks again.
I agree with Bklnite. A steam boiler for an apartment? Not likely that you’d have the height to have one operate properly.
I think it should be his responsibility to see to it that your apartment (and bedroom) is the adequate temp required by law. If I were you I’d keep pestering him to fix the issue.
Gas is all the same and covered by national grid when it comes to hot water, heat, and cooking gas. I pay for all that in a 1br and my bill averages below $100 usually. My guess that for the reason your bill being so high is – either the people from NG doesn’t do a reading every month and instead does estimates, or the heating system is inefficient, or it is on 24/7…those are my only conclusions.
I have a similar set-up Arkady; AFAIK this is the norm. MOST of the cost is for heating and hot water–cooking usage is a trivial amount and I can’t imagined why it should be separated out. I THINK you get a different (lower?) rate if you have a residential heating account.
The OP, of course, might well want to check if he/she is being billed for just his/her own apartment (as mopar suggested).