Heat bill too high

Londy8734

Hello,

I am a new landlord with a 3 unit building in Chicago. Each unit has its on gas line and meter. The 1st floor apartment's furnace is located in the basement along with 1 hot water tank. The first floor unit's gas bill is 3x the amount of the other units. The previous seller said it's because the entire building's hot water is connected to the 1st floor unit. I don't understand how that is possible and what the remedy is.

Thanks in advance.

Tinman

My best guess is because the DHW piping is shared throughout the building.

Short of major renovations and going with 3 separate water heaters, you’re probably stuck with it.

JUGHNE

So who pays what?
Each unit gets a bill and pays their own.

If you can see the history of all three units, then first floor usage in june/july and august is the hot water bill. 2nd and 3rd floor should be zero consumption.

How about gas cook stoves and clothes dryer?

Londy8734

JUGHNE said:

So who pays what?
Each unit gets a bill and pays their own.

If you can see the history of all three units, then first floor usage in june/july and august is the hot water bill. 2nd and 3rd floor should be zero consumption.

How about gas cook stoves and clothes dryer?

The gas lines are separate. 2nd and 3rd pay their own heat and cooking gas. I am paying the heating bill for 1st unit because its so high and per what the seller told me about water tank.

GroundUp

What's the question? If the water heater is using gas from unit 1, you already know the problem. Add a 4th meter and piping to the domestic water heater and split the bill 3 ways, or install 3 new water heaters served by the respective units' meters. In my buildings I pay the DHW and just include it in the rent. Heat gets severely abused when done that way, but DHW is usually pretty honest unless you have a real POS tenant who lets the hot water run all day simply because they hate you. It's usually easy to find that person and evict them though