I’m hoping someone can help me with an issue we’re having in our apartment…
We live in an large open apartment, basically a huge studio in Jersey City, NJ. Its about 25-30 feet wide by almost 100 feet long, with a 13 foot ceiling… We have gas heat with baseboards… The problem we are having is that once it gets cold (<30 F) the apartment won’t stay comfortably warm. Some mornings the temp would be as low as 58-60 even though the heat has been running all night… It is usually about 67F or so when I get home from work and falls during the night. From about early December to about March the heat is almost on constantly because it never reaches the temp set on the thermostat… Our monthly utility bills can get as high as $600 during these months and the apartment is still too cold…
I spoke to our landlord about the issue so he had someone inspect the heat, he didn’t find any problems. We then came to the conclusion that its probably the huge windows (the side of the apartment facing the street has 3 10ftX10ft windows) that is making the apt so cold. He said he would pay for curtains to block the windows so we purchased and installed thick curtains and deducted the $700 from our rent. It seems to have helped a little but the apartment still won’t get any higher than about 66-67F (was about 63F this morning) and its still early in the winter…
We have a space heater but its hard to tell if its helping at all. You have to be within a foot of it to feel any heat… We have a ceiling fan that I keep on low, it seems to do a good job of circulating the air because the air by the ceiling doesn’t seem to be much warmer than the air by the floor…
I’m not sure what to do… I really only care about it being warm in the evenings when we get home from work… I don’t care how cold it is when I’m sleeping and I can deal with the cold mornings, but it sucks to be uncomfortable when eating dinner and relaxing after work, especially when we have guests over… Its not so cold that I can complain to the an authority (I believe the requirement is 65 during the day and 60 at night)… I’m going to try putting that plastic sheeting (6MIL) on all the windows this weekend.
I’m thinking that I should try getting some more space heaters, I guess I’m looking to see if anyone has any suggestions on ones that will work well in a big open space. Maybe even an inexpensive industrial-grade one?
Sorry for the really long post, thanks in advance!!
One thing that has worked for me was to cordon off areas, and to make “rooms” using vinyl sheeting that is hanging from the ceiling. I could then just heat smaller areas. This was for a flat though, so I don’t know how tall your ceiling is or whether it would work for you.
I think you need to check with an HVAC person. The volume of your apartment is quite high, so it could be that your current heaters are not sufficient to heat that volume, especially with a 30-40 degree temperature gradient.
As far as space heaters go, I’d think that domestic ones aren’t going to be very useful for the volume you have. F’rinstance, we have a 5kW (17700 BTU/H) gas heater for our living area which is approx 18 x 28 x 9. That’s about right for our climate and the volume of the room. Your room is about 8 times the volume, which means you might need 40 kW (136500 BTU/H) of heating.
How about those plastic window sheets that you seal around the frame and then tighten with a hair dryer. I have no idea if they make them that big, but it may help.
Also, seal all the openings around the frame, glass and sill with removable, clear caulk. It will block heat exchange and just peels off in the summer.
Sounds like an insufficient supply of heat. It also sounds like you have a large empty space with little thermal mass to hold the heat. You don’t say so, but if you are the top floor in the structure you may be losing a lot of heat out of the ceiling as well. If you’re not using all that space, maybe you can find a way to block off the unused portions and create a smaller comfort zone.
With ceilings that high, you are most definitely putting all of your heat over your head. I have 9.5 foot ceilings, and I can’t even describe how much of a difference it makes to run the ceiling fans on low with the heat on. No ceiling fan running = a little chilly. Turn the fan on = Whoa! All this warmth was just over my head! I guarantee the top 5 feet of your space is at least 5 degrees warmer than where you’re standing.
If you don’t have them, see about getting them - they make a huge difference in the summer, too. Being a rental, of course the landlord might not go for it. In that case, next best thing is floor fans along perimeter, pointed toward the ceiling to mix the air around, not to point at the people, because you don’t need cooling.
I had a similar place in Baltimore way back when. I had rooms on multiple levels, especially in the winter it was more convenient to be in the upper levels. So maybe, if you are spending 70/month, you can invest that in some lumber at Home Depot or wherever and make a space for yourself that is both really cool and really warm
If these are single-pane windows, you are losing a huge amount of heat through them. Thick curtains should go all the way to the floor. Velcro can help seal them at the sides. I think there’s also a school of thought about having heaters such as radiators or baseboard heaters below windows so that a column of warm air forms some sort of barrier to losing more heat from the room.
As for space heaters, I’ve been very impressed with my new Micathermic heater, which is a combined radiant and convection heater. On the 1000 watt setting turned up halfway, it has been the only heat I have used for my study and bath this winter—and I live in Chicago. Sitting in front of it (it can be wall-mounted and stays cool to the touch) you feel warmed without the ambient air temperature having to be very high. I like mine so much I’ve ordered one for my parents and one for my brother-in-law for Christmas.
Oops. Missed that - however, one ceiling fan in a 30’x100’ space is a drop in the bucket. I’m sure someone could chime in here with a real formula for determining how many fans there should be for that kind of space. Just winging it, though, based on large commercial spaces I’ve seen in similar size, there should be a fan at least every 15 feet or so to be effective. That would make, what, at least a dozen fans for that space? Plus they need to be blowing in “reverse.”
At any rate, sealing the windows is the first lowest cost option. I’m sure that will make a big difference right there. I would think space heaters with blowers, so the heat doesn’t radiate upwards first, would be a more optimal choice. Maybe try positioning regular floor fans in front of the existing baseboards to blow the heat across the floor?
It sucks being cold and feeling like you can’t get warm without wearing a snowsuit around your own home. I hope you find a solution soon!
I think the only thing that is going to work is to block off some spaces and heat them with a space heater. That’s a huge amount of air to be heating, and the windows of course don’t help. I’ve lived in completely unheated spaces before, and you just have to build little tents.
In my opinion, you need forced air heat or radiators and better insulation. I’m not entirely sure how you can get both of those, but that’s what you need. You need more heat in, and you need less heat loss. Making a smaller area to heat is a stop-gap solution; it’s possible to heat a space like yours properly, but not with what you currently have.
The window film you can get to cover cold windows works extremely well, but I don’t know if you can get a big enough one at the hardware store. You should be able to jury-rig something with a sheet of plastic and double-sided tape, though. The heavy curtains should help somewhat, too.
You say you have A space heater - I’d be running three or four in a space that large (one in the bathroom, one near the bed, etc.). You can get very nice ones with thermostats so the heater will only run when needed, that also oscillate so the heat spreads around better. You’re close to the Canadian border - go north to get some proper ones if they aren’t available near you.
Putting heavy tapestries on your wall would help somewhat with insulating them better. Your landlord sounds reasonable; can you talk with him about getting some higher R-value insulation blown into the walls? Keeping your floor warmer will help too - lots of throw rugs if you don’t have carpet.
The window film we buy from Canadian Tire comes in 210"x64" sheets. When we didn’t have enough left in a single piece to cover a last window last year, we were able to use the double-sided tape to hold two sheets together and seal the whole thing to the window frame. It seemed to work as well as the single sheets over the other windows, so it probably can be done as a patchwork over the large windows in the OPs loft and still help. We really do notice a huge difference once we get around to putting them up (should do that this weekend…!)
