Heat issues at new 4-plex

[Ben S.]

I have a tenant that is going to fill an emergency tenant remedies action on me which means I have 24 hours to fix the issue otherwise they are able to force me to pay for a hotel for them or something like that.  This is all for the heat but I keep the heat in there unit at 71 degrees but they are complaining that one of the bedroom is at 65.  But they also told me that the bedroom that is cold has to always have the door closed because the cat goes in there and pees and poops because it's a mess. 

If anyone lives in MN they know that if you keep a bedroom door shut it will always be cooler than the rest of the house.  So I seriously don't know how to fix this issue.  Does anyone have suggestions on what to do?  I personally keep our house at 69 and our bedroom with the door always open that is upstairs is almost always at 65 and we are more than okay with that.  

I've had multiple professional people look at it and they say it's working but if possible I can install a separate thermostat in each unit to help regulate the heat per unit.  Because I have one of the 4 units that has to open a window to cool it down.  The unit that is filling this claim is the unit with the thermostat in it and it is set at 71.

[Evan Kraljic]

I feel for you Ben, sounds like you have an issue with unreasonable tenants more so than the heat, but there are some ways you can provide more even heating. So I'll go rapid fire with a few things that crossed my head reading your post. 

First off you said you've had multiple professionals out there to say it's working. For your sake you should get this in writing so you can show that as proof that you aren't blowing off the issue. 

I believe building code states that you need to provide heat to keep temperatures 68 degrees 3 ft from the floor. However I think most people with finished basements know that you can't really get to 68 unless you really crank the heat in the rest of your house, or install an electric baseboard heater. So that would be one option - Home depot sells cadets that you can hardwire (recommended), but they even sell ones that can plug in to outlets too, so that would be used in the one room. That's probably your easiest solution and relatively affordable.

It sounds like you have one heater for all 4 units - I'm assuming this is a boiler with radiator heat then? I would be curious to see what the quote for putting thermostats in each unit would be, sounds tricky but I don't know much about HVAC. I've had issues with uneven heating in rooms where bleeding radiators and tightening/loosening radiator valves at the inlet helped some with the water flow, but there's only so much you can do with these very old systems. I'm assuming if you're had professionals out and they're radiators, that you've already tried bleeding them. 

If you need any more HVAC people and you're around the metro, Dan Schmidt with Ideal Air is good. So is Metro Heating and Cooling