Is it worth it to separate heat (steam boiler and old radiators) in a unregulated multifamily? (tenants, plumber) (heating, conversion)

[nagpuri]

I bought a 3 family 70 year old multi family house. It has new gas fired steam boiler and old radiators. So far i have been including the heating in the rent but i'm expecting gas prices to go up due to new LNG export terminals. I want to separate the heating for each unit. I have following options.

Option 1: Modify steam boiler to hot water and either use same radiators if possible or replace with hyronics. This way i should be able to create separate metering with btu. Also each unit will have control over temperature. It is going to be at least 20k-25k.

Option 2: Install seperate boiler and run the line from each unit. Going to be more expensive. 40-50k but less headaches in future.

Any one with experience with this type of conversion?

[Attrill]

Are you interested in doing this just to keep the bills separate? If you aren't having any problems with regulating the heat in the units and the system is operating well I don't really think spending $20-50K just to separate the bills makes any sense at all. That's a good chunk of money just to avoid doing some math.

[nagpuri]

Yes. keeping bill separate and now one control only. The tenant at top complains about too much heat and one at the bottom about cold..