heating system for 3 units
I will have to make an entire new heating system for a 3 family brownstone. I was advised that in order to have the units pay exactly what they consume it´s best to put a gas heater for each unit. What about one gas burner in the basement with 3 water circuits – is there…
I will have to make an entire new heating system for a 3 family brownstone.
I was advised that in order to have the units pay exactly what they consume it´s best to put a gas heater for each unit.
What about one gas burner in the basement with 3 water circuits – is there a possibility to count the individual consumption?
One source will make it easier to use e.g. thermo solar to help reduce the overall cost of the building.
Yes. We did speak, that was a long time ago. I get the Steam Guy reference 🙂 Call me again or shoot me an e-mail let’s reconnect on this. I’ll help you figure out a solution that works for you.
Thanks for the comments. The BTU meters make sense – looks pretty uncomplicated. They use these in Europe since the 70s.
@ Steam Man – I think I once called you Steam Man when you were still Steam Guy!
1 – the house has a single owner (me): it has 5 floors plus basement (2 rental units owners duplex). It needs new plumming and electrical throughout.
2 – all ca$h – no financing
3 – start date: whenever this evil squatter leaves
I think there needs to be a question or two asked here.
1- Are you doing condos/co-ops? That matters.
2- Are you financing this because that has a HUGE role in what system to install.
Feel free to get in touch with me to discuss this in detail or we can keep chatting in generalities on this thread.
-SteamMan
Thanks for the shout out e-man. BTW can you e-mail me with your contact info?
I think having one boiler is more economical because you will save money on installation/maintenance. Besides tenants would pay less for the apartment if they have to pay for the heating. So you would waste maybe 200-300/year because tenants would be wasting your heat.
I would put each apartment on their own zone/thermostat. This way your system can be more efficient in term of heating only places, which are cold. I just installed system with five zones: two zones per first and second floor and a zone for basement. As result each room get’s right temperature all the time.
Also you can by thermostats with the locking code. This way you can set up the desired temp temp and lock it out.
Look at it this way: The space and water heating cost per apt is maybe $600-900/yr (cooking is small change). If you have a single system, you set the heat so tenants can’t willfully waste energy (of course they might complain about the heat levels); you then factor the amount into the rent, so you don’t lose anything.
Is it worth the extra thousands you’ll spend to install 3 heating systems? And the extra maintenance?
Now electricity is different, since tenants can be wasteful, and individual metering makes sense.
There are BTU energy meters out there but for some reason they’re just not used very often and are not easy to find through local suppliers. I think they’re a very economical way to allocate cost, but I don’t know of a single user that can speak to their accuracy or effectiveness at all.
Look here:
http://www.istec-corp.com/btumeters.html
btw, steamman is the one to consult regarding solar
the only thing that i could imagine being an accurate method to divide the use would be to submeter each pump on each separate zone and divide use accordingly..why not 3 HE units making heat and hot water instead, providing that you can meet the venting requirements