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Seeking Advice - Excessive heat from "boiler room" (106.5 F) in district steam-heated NYC co-op

I live in a co-op apartment heated by a district heating system that serves thousands of apartments with steam...it's not a utility, but a steam plant owned by the co-op that is a couple blocks away from our apartment.

We live on the ground floor above what used to be the boiler room. Now, in addition to the decommissioned old boilers, the steam enters the building under our apartment and apparently is used to heat the water there. This space, which is about the size of a middle-school gymnasium, is now known as the "pump room"

As you might guess, our apartment is overheated. With all radiators off and exposed risers fully insulated with 2" fiberglass, the temperature routinely reaches 85 degrees in the apartment and almost never drops below 82 unless we use air conditioners. I suspect that this is because the hot lines in the "pump room" beneath us are inadequately insulated. It's very hard to tell because this space is such a mess and a nest of pipes and disused equipment. However, I was able to stick a thermometer in through the window (always open year round), and I measured the temperature at 106.5 degrees Fahrenheit. This is right underneath our apartment!

I am writing a letter to our Board and Management about this, but I was also hoping for independent advice about what the normal operating temperature for this kind of space is. I've heard that an inherent problem with steam is that it has to reach such a high temperatures to even function, but I'm hoping that more and better insulation might mitigate this, and maybe even help the handful of neighbors down the line who don't get enough heat.

Any and all advice is appreciated, including any wisdom about navigating co-op politics or incentives for heating efficiency in NY State.

Thanks for reading!

David

Comments

  • Mark Eatherton
    Mark Eatherton Member Posts: 5,853
    You need some serious help there...

    Your co-op has some options. One would be to super insulate the ceiling of the pump room using some sort of high R value insulation. Might even want to consider a reflective insulation to keep the radiant energy in the pump room. They also need to do a good job of insulating all piping and equipment within the room. You are all paying for the energy being lost.

    You will also most probably have to ventilate that room to lower the air temperature and MRT. A cooling thermostat connected to a window mounted fan? If they don't want to do that, then I'd suggest they connect your AC units to the "house" power so that you are not having to pay the cooling bill.

    It's really too bad that they can't recover that waste heat and use it for preheating your buildings DHW if it is in the same room. Should also eliminate as much unnecessary piping as possible.

    Good luck in your venture...

    ME
    It's not so much a case of "You got what you paid for", as it is a matter of "You DIDN'T get what you DIDN'T pay for, and you're NOT going to get what you thought you were in the way of comfort". Borrowed from Heatboy.
  • furnacefigher15
    furnacefigher15 Member Posts: 514
    Just keep complainting until you get some traction. Perhaps send your letter on a lawyers letter head. You may even do some reasearch on locally available rebate programs from the local utililities. Often times there are programs that will virtually pay for energy saving repairs, such as steam trap testing, pipe insulation and so on.

    The research may find the ammunition you need to get some other co-op members in your corner.

    Good luck.
  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 15,452
    Can't add anything better than the above posts.