Mini Splits in New England

[Nicholas D.]

Hello guys and gals,

I am currently in the process of purchasing a 7 unit complex (built in late 1800s). The building consist of 4 studio units and 3 single bedroom units. Each Unit ranges from roughly 500Sf-650SF max. The issue lies that all the units have baseboard hot water heat, however, it is through one older boiler that I am responsible. The same lies with the hot water boilers, it presently has 2 large water tanks that the landlord is responsible for payment of the natural gas. The electric is also only on one meter, where I am responsible for the payment. The units are all currently occupied. My goal is to rehab as each tenant leaves, mostly focusing on lowering my expenses (utilities). I will be looking to have each unit sub metered with electric and to clean up the co-mingling. But when it comes to heat solutions, I am a little bit lost. I had stumbled upon the idea of AC mini-splits, that would sub meter these units as well as offer A/C, which would make the units more marketable. I am curious if anyone has had experience with these units in the New England area? I would like to avoid purchasing 7 brand new boilers if possible. The thought with mini-splits is it would allow me to lower my expenses, and keep the renovations more or less isolated so I'm not having to redo plumbing or ductwork etc etc to other units that are currently occupied. My other concern that I recently just thought of was what do landlords due if there are any power outages and tenants are left with no electric, what are landlords doing that run into this same problem?

Any questions, suggestions or thoughts are much appreciated. Thank you!

[Kenneth LaVoie]

My reply may not be the typical: I own or manage 49 units over 11 buildings in Central Maine (Waterville and Winslow) 

I like to think about OVERALL EFFICIENCY when it comes to heating solutions. When I started out, I always automatically thought "shift utilities to tenant whenever possible". Frankly that's far from always the best solution. For example, we have a duplex with TWO boilers and TWO electric hot water heaters. Sounds great...each tenant pays own oil and electric...like having two single family houses. BUT ... overall the BUILDING uses much more oil & electricity than it would it it had ONE boiler with an indirect hot water heater. So overall, the units cost the tenants more than if we supplied heat. If we supplied heat and hot water, I would be able to charge about $100 per unit more per month that would go straight to the bottom line. I'd have slightly more risk but a lot would have to go wrong, and often, to outweigh the math. 

With electric we have mostly separate meters but we do offer to have electric included. If they skip out on rent, sure we get stuck with an extra $50 but it's only happened once in 3 years. We bill $45 for 1BR, $55 for 2BR, etc. and cap usage at that amount. So we keep the difference if they use less (to compensate for the extra bookeeping and risk) and get paid if they use more. 

So back to heat...yes, mini splits are all the rage. Most that have tried them regret it as a PRIMARY heat source. They're WONDERFUL for cheap cooling and beautiful for heat at 30 degrees and higher, but most have told me even the brand new ones struggle below 10 degrees and they cost more to run than old fashioned electric below a certain temp. (and maine has MANY MANY nights of zero or below). For "in unit" heat, most still stick with monitor (oil or propane or NG). Most experienced Maine landlords will tell you, from a comfort viewpoint, NOTHING beats ONE CENTRAL boiler with HWBB. I wouldn't have anything else in most of my buildings EVEN IF some program came out offering a 50% rebate. It's simple & reliable. 

One thing you can do is to add a heat pump water heater. Assuming you have a central HWBB boiler with boiler mate, you can "join" a heat pump or hybrid water heater and have things setup so that in the winter when the boiler is running anyway, your boiler mate will handle the hot water, but in the spring, summer, early fall when you can shut the boiler down, you use the hybrid, and maybe have the boiler set to kick in if the hybrid is having a hard time keeping up. I've spoken with our local heating contractor and it's a pretty sweet setup.