When we did the inspection on this apartment (as those of you who have been reading that long may recall) the home inspector told us that the furnace was on its last legs, and really should have been replaced decades earlier. It was original to the building, meaning over 50 years old, and was an oil furnace that had been converted to gas. It was not only totally inefficient but, as he put it in his report, "ripe for imminent failure." It was also, he said, a carbon monoxide hazard.
Since we believe in energy efficiency in all things, and didn't have any great interest in testing our carbon monoxide detector with a real-life scenario, we decided to replace the furnace. Fortunately, we have a good friend who is a retired heating and cooling guy. I called him, told him about my apartment and what we wanted, and he told me exactly what to get and how much it should cost. I wrote down all the specifications, went to Home Depot, and got my local Trane dealer to come out to give me an estimate. I think I shocked him by reeling off make and model numbers--it's probably not what he usually gets. He gave us a good deal, according to our friend, and a few weeks later the furnace was installed. We also got a new hot water heater and a humidifier, which is good for many things, including the health and happiness of my spinning wheel.
When it started getting cold last fall, by which point gas prices had already gone up by about half, we were pleased to find that our heat bills had gone down quite a bit over the last year's bills, even with the gas price difference. In December, which was a really cold month around here, our heat bill was about $140 to last year's $170, with the thermostat set at a balmy 67 during the day and 65 at night. In January, the billing cycle which encompassed our Israel trip, it was $82.
I thought that was a little odd, because we hadn't set the thermostat that low--the cat was still here, and we didn't want the pipes to freeze. And what struck me as really strange was that when we walked in the door, even though it was well below freezing out and our thermostat was at 55, the apartment was, I think, around 64. Then I realized what was happening.
There are four apartments in this building--two upstairs, two down. We live downstairs. All of the other apartments still have the same furnace that we replaced, meaning, very inefficient. All of those furnaces are leaking a lot of heat. When you go down into the basement, it's always really, really toasty down there--much warmer than it is in here. What's happening is that they're effectively heating our apartment for us--that leaked heat is all coming up into our apartment, keeping it as warm as it really needs to be. If I set the thermostat at 60, the heat never kicks on and it stays at around 65. During the day, when I put it on 67, the heat does come on sometimes, but not much.
I feel bad about this, but there's really nothing I can do about it. I talked to our upstairs neighbors when our first gas bills came, and they were shocked when their first heating bill came in at close to $400, and the next month's even higher. (All four apartments changed hands at the same time--the building had been owned by, and was sold by, one family.) This shouldn't have been a surprise to them, but it was, because they never asked for the heating disclosures when they bought their apartment, and didn't know that there was no insulation in the roof (we knew this, because we had originally put in an offer on an upstairs apartment and withdrew it when we discovered what it would cost to heat.) I told them what was going on with the furnaces, and how much a new furnace would help, but I don't think he really believed me. They are from India--all three families are--and I think they feel it's one of those things that just can't be controlled.
So the fact that we invested in a new furnace to reduce our heat bills in future is resulting in our neighbors' paying for our heat for us. (The upstairs people would still have been subsidizing us, but with an old furnace at least we would be paying for as much of the leaked heat.) Short of buying new furnaces for all of them, I can't change this. They know what's happening, because I told them, and they still don't seem to have any plans to replace their furnaces--which I understand, because it's expensive, but still.
4 comments:
Well, it's very nice and neighborly and ethical of you to be concerned about them heating your place for you, but don't feel guilty about it because you have done all you can. You have even gone that extra step of telling them what is going on and how to fix it, where I think most people would have just thought, "well, lucky us!" and left it at that, so it's up to them now if they choose to address the issue or keep paying. Freedom of choice and all that.
Just out of curiosity, and because I live where furnaces aren't really something one considers closely (not nearly as much as your area does), how much does replacing a furnace cost?
By the way, I can't control the heat in my room either, and I do have nice toasty floor sections thanks to the heater on the floor below (I'm on the 3rd floor) so I actually end up leaving my window and curtains open most of the day and night to cool off. Although, admittedly, it's been quite balmy outside (in the low 60s) so it's not like I'm letting in Old Man Winter.
The estimate for our new furnace, humidifier, and water heater, all together, were about $4,500. But then when they installed it they knocked something off because they realized that the thermostat was new and didn't need to be replaced. I think it ended out at around $4,300 and change.
Well, it does seem like a lot initially, but given that you seem to be saving at least $230 a month over what your neighbors are paying, in only a year and a half all that is paid for. A good investment, I'd say.
And they wouldn't even need to spend that much. They don't have to have a humidifier, and the water heater has nothing to do with any of this. They could get something that would be a tremendous improvement for around three thousand, and get a $300 tax credit on top of that. The bills of the upstairs people wouldn't go down as much as ours have, since they've got the roof to heat, but I would guess they'd save a couple hundred a month. They'd certainly have their money back in two years.
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