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Pruzhany
Thank you for responding. I tried several times to go to the site you supplied, but it won't let me. Keeps saying server error. Is this site listed in the part of the lease that covers submeters? Any suggestions on another way I can get in to it? It's interesting the way you are explaining it because as you said, setting it to 85 will do nothing. I think the highest the temperature has ever read was 77 degrees even when I had it set to 85. The problem is that it doesnt feel 77 degrees, even when it reads 77 degrees. It feels chilli. More like 70 or 72 degrees. The only place we feel heat is from that vent in the bathroom that you can turn on and off. And in the hallway outside the apartment...the hallway is always toasty. So the building sets a number limit and no ones vents will blow out anything hotter than that number?? And please explain to me why you are saying the heat will feel cool, because that is exactly how it feels. The air blowing out of the vents, always has a coolish breeze to it. It's a little crazy. The guys that made the units, Trayne? even came to a few apartments to check, but they put their thermometer to the vents and it said that the air coming out was like 96 degrees. Didn't feel like any 96 degrees I know! So...I love the apartment, but this is a little hard to deal with.
P.S. How is your apartment with the heat? What do you keep your thermostat on? Thank you
If this is your first experience with forced air heating rather than steam/hot water radiators or convectors you will have some adjusting to do.
Force air heating often creates drafts and a chilly feeling because you are blowing air. Radiators and to an extent convectors heat objects (and themselves) which in turn warms the room and persons. The heat given off by radiators also continues to give off as they cool down. This unlike forced air heating when once it stops blowing, that is that.
Pruzhany
Got through on the second link fine. Thanks for all the info. It's very interesting...the odd thing is that every once in a while the air blowing out of the vents actually feels warmish, but most of the time it feels on the cool side, and there is no rhyme or reason to this. The temperature outside doesn't change nor do I change the temperature on the thermostat when the warm air is coming out. I will definitely be keeping it below 75 on the thermostat as I know now for sure that setting it higher than 77 degrees is useless. No matter what I put it on, the temp never rises above 77. And 77, which seems like a fairly decent temp for an apartment to be when it is feeling like 2 degrees outside, doesn't really feel that way at all. In my old apartment the heat was controlled by a boiler. It was always very warm inside, and the same temp throughout the apt. Every so often they had to clean the boiler,so we would lose heat and hot water for a good chunk of the day, but we were always prewarned when it was going to be shut off.
Again, thank you for trying to explain this. Curious to see what the first electric bill is going to be.
i moved in in a few weeks ago, i've experienced hot water issue. sometimes theres no hot water come out when i wanna take a shower, have anyone experienced that?
BugsyPal
Thanks for the explanation, but now I have what might be a silly question. If forced air heating creates drafts and a chilly feeling, what is the point of trying to heat an apartment like that. And what will be happening in the summer months when we are trying to keep it cool? Will the air conditioning work better than the heat does because of the blowing air. P.S. I lived with getting heat from the buildings boiler for 26 years...you might be very right about me having a whole lot of adjusting to do. P.S. When we step out of the apartment, it is always very warm in the hallway. What is the reason that is happening?
BugsyPal
Thanks for the explanation, but now I have what might be a silly question. If forced air heating creates drafts and a chilly feeling, what is the point of trying to heat an apartment like that. And what will be happening in the summer months when we are trying to keep it cool? Will the air conditioning work better than the heat does because of the blowing air. P.S. I lived with getting heat from the buildings boiler for 26 years...you might be very right about me having a whole lot of adjusting to do. P.S. When we step out of the apartment, it is always very warm in the hallway. What is the reason that is happening?
Our building has steam heat (convector radiators) and yes the hallway feels much warmer than inside the apartments. Am thinking that is because apartment wall or walls face the outside and or have vents to bring in air (those grates you find in bathrooms and kitchens that do not have windows). Where you have walls that face outdoors there is heat lost in winter. This can be minimized by insulation but many of these new glass tower buildings seem to be more of that than wall so there you are.
Forced air heating is cheaper and easier to install than steam/hot water. It also frees up floor space because you don't need radiators, convectors, baseboards, etc... This also makes placement of furniture easy as well. As central air conditioning became more common force air heating makes that easy as well since the ductwork is already in place.
Some persons love forced air and hate steam or hot water, others vice-versa. I find force air heating drafty and that it stirs up dust. The latter happens no matter how clean you keep your home. Newer systems incorporate various filtering systems to minimize dust and odors (basically air purifier systems).
When it comes to new construction here in NYC for large multi-family apartment buildings you are most always seeing forced air heating instead of steam. Again these systems are easier to design and install over hot water or steam, and they can incorporate AC, air purifier and humidity as well.
Am hearing that steam or hot water heating for new construction may soon go the way of the Dodo. New zoning and building code requirements to reduce NYC's "carbon footprint" and "Green initiatives" are calling for buildings to be designed in ways that make steam/hot water impractical or just too expensive.
Pruzhany
Got through on the second link fine. Thanks for all the info. It's very interesting...the odd thing is that every once in a while the air blowing out of the vents actually feels warmish, but most of the time it feels on the cool side, and there is no rhyme or reason to this. The temperature outside doesn't change nor do I change the temperature on the thermostat when the warm air is coming out. I will definitely be keeping it below 75 on the thermostat as I know now for sure that setting it higher than 77 degrees is useless. No matter what I put it on, the temp never rises above 77. And 77, which seems like a fairly decent temp for an apartment to be when it is feeling like 2 degrees outside, doesn't really feel that way at all. In my old apartment the heat was controlled by a boiler. It was always very warm inside, and the same temp throughout the apt. Every so often they had to clean the boiler,so we would lose heat and hot water for a good chunk of the day, but we were always prewarned when it was going to be shut off.
Again, thank you for trying to explain this. Curious to see what the first electric bill is going to be.
The warm air spurt is also normal. As the temperature changes outside of the building, the electronic sensors will adjust the entire building for it. So as it gets colder outside you'll feel a heat spurt and when it gets warmer outside it will return to its normal settings and feel like cool air. If you want to test it yourself, just go to Radio Shack (or some similar store) and purchase a indoor/outdoor thermometer and stick the wired end in the vent and hang the module as far as it will ago from the vent. Then you can test/watch the air flow.
i moved in in a few weeks ago, I've experienced hot water issue. sometimes there's no hot water come out when i wanna take a shower, have anyone experienced that?
Also normal. As the building reaches 100% occupancy, the computer system is heating the water for maximum efficiency. Thus if too many people take a shower at the same time, the system can't adjust for it that quickly so some will get warm instead of hot water. over time the system will tweak itself for which days and times require more hot water.
fyi calling the landlord to hit the override is not going to help much since this is a a building and it will take awhile until it heats up enough which is usually after you've left already.
Interesting you mentioned the dust and odors. Just last night I was noticing a ridiculous amount of "dust" had accumulated on the dish drainer board which is on the right side of the sink almost directly under the vent in the kitchen. My curiousity of how that happened has now been answered, and I guess I should be expecting this continuously now. There have also been times I have mentioned a strange odor in the apartment connected to the heat and now I realize that is probably because of the forced air heating as well as you mentioned it stirs up dust and odors. Thanks for putting a little more light on this for me. Mark, the head of construction was trying to explain it, but you explained it in a way that was easier to understand and addressed my concerns about the "coolish" air and "draftiness" we are feeling. He just kept saying that the air that was coming out of the vent felt warm, when it obviously did not. I assumed that this would be a problem that could be solved, but now I see it is something that we will have to work around. As they say, nothing can be perfect...
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Electric bill?
