Renters Upset About "Insane" ConEd Bills to Heat Crown Heights Luxury Building
It’s been an unusually long and cold winter, but even so, the heating bills at new luxury rental building 500 Sterling Place in Crown Heights have been “insanely expensive,” according to one renter there who got in touch with us. She said said her January bill was $598 and February $700 to heat a two-bedroom,…
It’s been an unusually long and cold winter, but even so, the heating bills at new luxury rental building 500 Sterling Place in Crown Heights have been “insanely expensive,” according to one renter there who got in touch with us. She said said her January bill was $598 and February $700 to heat a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment of about 1,000 square feet — and that was with the heat off in one of the bedrooms. (For comparison, this is about what we pay for a three-story row house.)
“At this point, most tenants I’ve spoken with are very upset,” she told us. “I don’t know what we’re going to do about the bills ourselves, as they’ve gotten to be more then what I can afford. We’re definitely moving out after our lease is up!”
Each apartment has large PTAC electric heating/cooling units under the windows in its main rooms. Click through to see what one looks like in a bedroom at the complex.
Since she first contacted us two weeks ago, the management company has met with the entire building to discuss the problems and has agreed to pay “a substantial portion of everyone’s ConEd bills,” she said. They have been “really receptive and transparent. I think we’ll wait and see about moving, as they’ve been so responsive.”
Complaints about high heating bills are not uncommon in new-construction luxury rental buildings. Another example is 53 Broadway in Williamsburg, which we’ve written about here and here.
The building’s management company had no comment. We also reached out to the owner, and will update the story if we hear anything.
In the meantime, is anyone else out there experiencing similar problems with PTAC units in any kind of building? And are there any heating experts out there who can clue us in to what the underlying issue is — design, installation, or just the nature of PTAC units?
500 Sterling Place Coverage [Brownstoner]
Photos by Halstead
The same issue is happening at Leonard Pointe (395 Leonard St.) in north Williamsburg. Insane electricity bills for the winter months, from $300-$1000 for 1-2 bedrooms. PTAC units as well, with drafty windows, and an electric boiler for each unit. Management (Goose Property Management) has stated it will possibly reimburse tenants for some of their winter bills, but has not yet done so, and has given no signs that they will follow through. Rather, management on this issue, and every other issue presented to them (the building had no gas for nearly 2 months) have been defensive, aggressive, and unwilling to help in a meaningful way. They pass blame onto Con Edison and the tenants. The building owner is 88 Richardson LLC (it was formerly 396 Leonard LLC).
Both this property (500 Sterling Place in Crown Heights) and the other property mentioned in the article (53 Broadway in Williamsburg) were built by the same developer – Adam America.
http://adamamericare.com/projects
I own a unit at The Carlton, 82 Irving Place. It’s a one bedroom and the electric heating bills are equally insane. Last year they were over $500 in January and February. That building heats (and cools) with a HVAC unit. I wonder if others experience the same problems with that system as well. Oh, and the management company/sponsors didn’t help out at all with the heating costs, so the folks at 500 Sterling should consider themselves lucky (at least, lucky in that way).
Yeah, I think these PTAC units switch to electric resistance heat at very low temperatures because the heat pump function doesn’t work very well when it gets cold. So basically it’s the same thing as heating your apartment with a space heater. On the plus side, electric resistance heat is 100% efficient, but you have to pay Con Ed’s electric rates which are extremely high. So the cost per Btu of heat produced is much higher than with a conventional gas or oil boiler/furnace.
Maybe this will teach some of these whiners to conserve. If the landlord was paying for their heat they’d have no problem having the windows open if it were too hot. The State regulates what the Utility company can charge consumers but government gets a slice too. Look at your bill.
It sounds a bit inaccurate to say that because bill was $598 and $700 that that is all for heat. That would include
electricity for everything else in apt also, no? Add up bill for entire year and compare with someone who does not pay for heat. Do these apts have their own hot water heaters also?
Still sounds very high and appears that these units are very ineffecient.
I don’t think so — I think it’s probably the PTAC units causing the high bills. It doesn’t matter much how thick your walls are– brick and stone are terrible insulators and are much less efficient than modern construction. The R value of your brick wall in an old house might be a 2 or 3 at best unless you’ve added insulation. What you really benefit from in a brownstone is having neighbors on both sides so you don’t have much exterior wall to lose heat from.
NYC has an energy code which (I think) would have required this building to have insulation in the walls so unless the builder cheated on that, this building should be pretty well insulated.
Go do your homework, junior.
I’m on the 4th floor of a 7-story pre-war in Queens and I rarely open the radiators because it’s so warm, I actually make a point of leaving two windows and a ceiling fan on when I go out so it isn’t hot when I return!