Emergency Heat rises overall heating bill?

[Donta Busch]

My question to the landlords and property managers is: 

A tenants in a 60 unit luxury apartment building heating unit has frosted over and now needs to be worked on, it was suggested by the HVAC person to start the emergency heat on so it can defrost. While the emergency heat was on for 3 days, it double the electric bill. (tenants pay their own electric bill) 

Should the building owner pay for the overage charges due to the emergency heat? Or should that fall on the tenant?   

[Kurt Winsley]

Emergency heat simply engages the resistance heating strips as the primary source of heat, bypassing the heat pump. However, if the temperatures were cold enough that the heat pump wasn't able to keep up, the system automatically engages the heat strips to satisfy the users call for heat even when the thermostat isn't on "emergency heat".

Additionally, the thermostats I install will engage the backup heat (resistance heat or gas) when the thermostat indicates a temperature difference greater than 2 degrees between the actual temperature and the set point temperature. For example, if a person uses a programmable thermostat and has the heat set to 64 at night, but 68 during the day, the heat strips will come on in the morning when the set point temperature changes from the night setting of 64 to the day setting of 68.

Therefore, the three days may have increased the bill somewhat, but probably didn't double it.

Hope this helps!

Kurt Winsley