Usually this occurs on weekends after six pm and the companies they partner with are all charging emergency fees. i have had emergency services come for a thermostat that the vacationer couldn't figure out how to use. $200 for an hvac guy to say "turn the dial like this". 

Hi BP,I am planning to lease out a separate room in the house with its private entrance, kitchenette, bathroom and separate thermostat.

And put a lock on the thermostat for heat/cooling, because that will be another problem area.  

I would hire a qualified PM to manage the property, it can be a pain with college students, i have had some pretty good ones in mine so far. ( note: check agreement with PM usually they charge a leasing fee to you, lets say $300 for each lease agreement, group of 3 students is one lease, 3 individual students is 3 leases or $900, make sure you have in your agreement that if they get a group it can be 300 but if its an individual maybe 125, this prevents them from getting single students and costing you a fortune.)3. definitely have them get renters insurance and make sure your PM has that on the lease agreements.4. in PA you can charge 1 1/2 months security deposit, i know my PM charges 1 month5. do not know of any in Erie, sorry6. rent should be based on the area and your PM will know better on that. my Student rentals, i include heat( sometimes you can set a limit and then have them pay the overage), sewer/ water, garbage, lawn maintenance/ snow removal and internet. they pay for Electric ( stove, dryer and hot water heater are electric.) i include the internet because it helps rent them and i can control the thermostat on all of them and front door lock on one of them.you are just finishing up your reno now, but if you invest in another student rental, use 5/8" drywall on the walls, harder for them to damage, plus gives you better fire protection.

He has recently started doing personal jobs on the side but is new to the business part of it.He went to a unit and replaced an outdated thermostat, fixed a light fixture that was hanging, and sprayed WD-40 into the units entrance lock because it was giving the tenants some trouble.When we got the invoice, he charged for 45 minutes of labor but also charged an extra $30 for additional fees and had no further description.

(Note:  the thermostat was in a locked box set at 69 degrees in a different apartment.)I asked him why the window was open when it was 20 degrees outside. 

All things not working on move-in:A/C unit for upstairs broke in 115 degree Vegas heat, fixed in 2-3 daysCould not change temperature of thermostat, it was pre-programmed and controlled remotely, months to fix No internet, after we spoke numerous times about us working remotely from the home via the internet, added next dayNo garage door opener, 2 weeks to getNo heat (yes we need heat in Vegas), took weeks to fixShower in 4th bath did not work, months to fix but wasn't urgent as we were not using it No dishwasher, still not fixedWhile everyone has tried it has been a huge inconvenience with all the repairs and the dishwasher has never worked and still doesn't.

Wifi allows me to monitor the place using cameras, I have a wife controlled remote thermostat, and soon an alarm.4.

It has one furnace and one thermostat in the down unit that controls the temperature for the entire house-both units.

You might want to put a timer on the thermostat that turns it up and down depending on time of day or charge them over and above a certain amount of usage.