Apartment laws for minimum temperature if heating is not included in rent? (rental, house) - Pittsburgh - Pennsylvania (PA) - City-Data Forum

Bunker07652 · 01-09-2015, 04:00 PM

Hi, I live in an apartment that has an electric wall AC/heat unit that blows warm air. The problem is that cold air leaks in while it's off. In the past couple of days when the temp is around or below zero my apartment is very cold even when the heat is turned to the max. Are there any laws that require the apartment to be at a minimum temperature even if heating is not covered in the rent?

jay5835 · 01-09-2015, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bunker07652

Hi, I live in an apartment that has an electric wall AC/heat unit that blows warm air. The problem is that cold air leaks in while it's off. In the past couple of days when the temp is around or below zero my apartment is very cold even when the heat is turned to the max. Are there any laws that require the apartment to be at a minimum temperature even if heating is not covered in the rent?

Heat must go on when temp goes below 45 degrees.

Bunker07652 · 01-09-2015, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jay5835

Heat must go on when temp goes below 45 degrees.

Do you mean that the temperature in the apartment must be at a minimum of 45 degrees, or that the heating must be turned on when the outside temperature is below 45 degrees? My heating unit is controlled by the tenant, not by a central control.

jay5835 · 01-09-2015, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bunker07652

Do you mean that the temperature in the apartment must be at a minimum of 45 degrees, or that the heating must be turned on when the outside temperature is below 45 degrees?

The latter. It is supposed to be 65 indoors. I lived in a building once where the heat went on when it was 45 outside. Somehow that was supposed to balance out, but there were a number of days in April and October when it was warmer outside than in.

theta_sigma · 01-09-2015, 06:03 PM

I lived in a house with a heater like that once. It was either on or off, no thermostat, so you couldn't just leave it on all night while you were sleeping, you'd boil. Or leave it on all day while you were out of the house. It was awful and unsafe and we would routinely wake up in the morning with it below freezing inside the house.

I would check with... I'm not sure who. The building inspection office? Because I would really really hope that that kind of set-up is not, in fact, up to code for a rental property. You need a thermostat.

charisb · 01-09-2015, 06:36 PM

Have you contacted your landlord? Do you have a thermostat inside?

shadowfax · 01-09-2015, 08:25 PM

Where is the cold air coming in from? You might need to plug up some drafts.

theta_sigma · 01-09-2015, 08:31 PM

If the situation is the way I'm thinking it is, this apartment for all intents and purposes has no heat. It has a giant space heater with no thermostat, but no furnace. At least, that's what I am getting from the OP and that is exactly the situation I had when I lived in Maryland. It doesn't matter how well insulated your apartment is, when it's 12 degrees outside and you have no heat, it gets cold inside.

I wound up living in a place like this because the original propane furnace broke and it was so old that replacement parts no longer existed for it. So our landlord's solution was to just give us a large window unit that was both an air conditioner and a space heater. No thermostat. You turned it on and then you turned it off, manually. You had to turn it off completely before you left the house and also when you went to bed or else it would be on and running at full blast the whole time you were out or asleep. Meaning the house could either be about 90 degrees (and your electric bill about a billion dollars) when you woke up in the morning, or below freezing. Those were the two options.

_Buster · 01-10-2015, 07:33 AM

Even low cost space heaters these days have thermostats to control them. get one (or two).

szug-bot · 01-10-2015, 08:29 AM

Bunker, I really do hope you are not responsible for snow shovelling.

And depending on your responses, if it is an on/off you control, you will have to leave it on for a while to have it eventually "catch up". Thankfully, I do have my own thermostat (for AC/heat), but I like to leave it off as long as tolerable. Its gotten down to a nippy 58 deg. in my studio. But for prolonged periods when I am at home, and sweaters aren't doing it, I have to raise the thermostat - but it takes HOURS for it to make the place somewhat warm.

Sorry for your problem - this probably affects your sleep, your mood, your day at work.....