# Can you control heat in a apartment as much as you want? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 18, 2013, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-control-heat-in-a-apartment-as-much-as-you-want/674161 "2013-11-18T01:53:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ethelbert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/958977/32.png) [@ethelbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ethelbert)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2013, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-control-heat-in-a-apartment-as-much-as-you-want/674161/41 "2013-11-20T16:02:32Z")
> [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](#): > > You’d think so, wouldn’t you? We rented an apartment in a 60 year old complex, heated with steam heat from a shared boiler. Thermostat was on the wall. A year later, the complex went condo, and we bought our unit. Part of the changeover was to have the thermostat replaced. We asked why they were replacing a fairly new thermostat, and we were told that the old one didn’t actually do anything. It was mostly window dressing, to make renters feel like they had some control. I have heard about situations like this, but they make no sense to me. I can’t imagine that a single tenant can cause the shared boiler to go on, unless there are dedicated steam pipes going to each apartment (I have never heard of such an arrangement). The only way I can see this working is that the thermostat can lower the heat by telling the system to bypass your radiators and raise it back up by telling the system to use them. If the boiler is not on, your thermostat is not likely to turn it on. In any case, your control over your heat would be limited. I lived in a co-op in Queens, NY that had about 100 units heated by a single boiler. The heating system was poorly designed. The heat would first go up the south facing side of the building then snaked around to the north facing side, thus giving the coldest apartments the least heat. The only controls on the heat that could be exercised by the tenant were to have thermostatic control valves installed on the radiators. This did not help the people on the north side very much, and the folks on the south side often had their windows open in the winter. This building was built in 1938. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-control-heat-in-a-apartment-as-much-as-you-want/674161/42 "2013-11-21T17:20:19Z")
I’ve never lived any place where we didn’t have our own thermostat\*, but there ARE places where the heating is controlled from a central spot, in that prior to a certain date in the year, it simply won’t _work_ (similarly with the A/C). That said, if you want it warmer, a good-quality space header will work better in a small apartment than in a house, between smaller area, and fewer outside walls. - Well, except for the cheap sublet near Dupont Circle where the building’s furnace was REMOVED just before I moved in (in October) and had not been replaced before we moved out in March. Yeah, it was chilly. They _did_ provide us with two space heaters, and we were on the third floor; basically we spent all our home time huddled in bed trying to keep warm. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-control-heat-in-a-apartment-as-much-as-you-want/674161/43 "2013-11-22T06:13:14Z")
Depends. Last apartment hunt we looked at a newer construction/rehab place with central heat and air. Tenants paid for this, so the thermostat was yours to control. The apartment we ended up in is an older building (we don’t even have this-century windows, which is a whole other gripe), and our heat is steam radiators heated by a central boiler in the basement. Heat is included in the rent, but there’s no unit-level controls or thermostat. The most control we have is valve open = heat or valve closed = no heat. Except the one in the bathroom, which has no valve at all and is thus always on whenever the boiler kicks in. So… pay attention to how your apartment is heated and ask those questions when you’re viewing places. Odds are, if you want to control it yourself, you’ll have to pay for it yourself too. There are a LOT of older apartment buildings here, so “heat included” aka radiator heat that you have no direct control over is pretty common. I haven’t lived in a place with a thermostat since I left the East Coast, over _mumblemumble_ years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-control-heat-in-a-apartment-as-much-as-you-want/674161/44 "2013-11-22T10:36:04Z")
> [@Blackberry](#): > > From the outside, it doesn’t look small though, it looks pretty big (it’s on a corner)! And I think there’s one on each floor. I haven’t checked every floor, but there is definitely more than one. > > The rooms bordering it are at \*least \*10 degrees hotter than the rest of my apartment, and the whole place is bordered on 5 sides (including above and below) by other units and an indoor hallway. What the heck is going on in that room? Either it’s got other utilities (hot water, heating), or it’s vented down to somewhere that is hot. There’s nothing electrical that should be making it that hot. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-control-heat-in-a-apartment-as-much-as-you-want/674161.md?page=2)