I'm betting you were not alone. Are you in old or new construction?

Did you complain to the manager or just figure that the cold snap would pass? Do you recall at what outdoor temperature it started to not keep up?

A two head minisplit would be a fantastic solution for this apartment, but it's rather expensive and I do not believe the 60A electric service to the unit could handle the load. But I actually have not really looked into it even though I have been harboring fantasies of doing just that for my own apartment, mostly for the air conditioning. Our New Jersey electricity is so damn expensive I have a hard time believing that a minisplit can compete with gas no matter what they say.

The tank cannot be increased beyond where it is set. The water heater has a mixing valve for the domestic hot water so the tank temperature is irrelevant to it. If your water heater doesn't have a mixing valve it should, not only does it create effectively more hot water from your tank, but your tank should be set to at least 130 to eliminate the possibility of legionella breeding in your system.

This apartment pays for its own heat, I'm just trying to figure out whether the heating system I've installed is adequate even if it drops a few degrees under the most extreme circumstances.

Yeah, that's what I did in this unit before it actually had heat! The only heater it had was an old style 'gas on gas' stove with a convection heating unit on the side. The bedroom at the other end of the apartment got pretty cold and I provided an electric radiator. But electric radiator should not be part of the plan in my opinion.

But your response illustrates the conundrum I pointed out far up thread of where homeowners feel ok improvising while some renters feel their climate should be perfect no matter what's going on with the weather.

Years ago just after I bought a building and had the oil boiler replaced with gas I got a February call from a tenant saying it was freezing in the apartment. In a panic that the new boiler had failed I hustled up there with an infrared thermometer and found the apartment was 70° everywhere. The tenant was standing there in shorts and a tank top, and when I said the apartment was perfectly warm and maybe she should put on some clothes she screamed at me "that's bullshit!"

Funny, didn't even occur to me to adjust the water temperature up on my own boiler. We just put on sweaters! The heaters are being fed from the hot water heater which is set to its top temperature of around 140.

The issue isn't the BTUs of the water heater but of the the radiators. I could have gained 15% with the higher fan speed but I think expecting a tenant to screw around turning up and down the fan speed when there's a cold snap is probably too much. Or is it? Same thing with the fan noise, anyone like us with window air conditioners just sucks it up about the noise, and the higher fan speed is far less noisy than an air conditioner, but I'm hesitant to go there.

As I responded above I actually do have fans, the whole point of what I'm trying is to eliminate baseboards.

Thanks for thoughtful response. The system is kind of idiosyncratic so some of what you say doesn't apply. Short cycling is an issue with something like a steam system or PTAC, but this is actually a small apartment being heated by its water heater!

The cycling is the on/off of the fan in the wall heaters, not the cycling of the water heater itself. The challenge it had during the cold weather wasn't the BTUs of water heater but the amount of radiation it could transmit through the radiators. I'm using a Nest thermostat provided by PSEG for free, I haven't seen a setting for temp differential but I can hunt around for it.

It's also interesting what you say about the fan noise. This is something new to me, I'm used to passive radiators and I've been unsure how to approach it. These units actually have two fan speeds, but the higher speed definitely seems intrusive to me. I'm curious how loud a PTAC is, what would you compare it to? I'm assuming that a quality residential PTAC isn't as loud as what I've experienced in motels.

Sure, you can look at it that way, if you believe that being a renter means your life should be perfect, unlike a homeowner. Homeowners all over the country found their heating struggling during this recent cold snap.

I guess you have a hard time seeing the difference between 10° challenging the heating system and a slumlord who sets the thermostat at 60° to save money.

Yes, old brick houses are uninsulated and it's very difficult insulating without gutting them. It is what it is, so you need to pump in enough BTUs.

Mini bronze Liberty statuettes of course! Most things uniquely Jersey are experiences that cannot be exported.

Airgas could care less as long as your money is green. I've bought welding gases from them.

What we need is a cable tramway over the Hudson! When it isn't full of commuters it'll be full of tourists!

Its far more heavy trucks than cars that destroy streets, and we got plenty of them. Its why parkways require much less maintenance than highways. Weather plays into it, as water seeps into cracks created by trucks and freezes, but it needs those cracks.

Unfair to compare a state with the same population as Hudson County. Traffic destroys streets, as well as constantly tearing them up for utilities, neither of which applies to VT.

That 6 months advance demand is illegal under NJ law. I have turned down offers of prepayment due to this.

https://www.state.nj.us/dca/divisions/codes/publications/pdf_lti/t_i_r.pdf

The maximum-security deposit to be collected by the landlord cannot be more than one and one-half times one month’s rent (N.J.S.A. 46:8B-21.2). It can be less. Any additional yearly security deposit increase may not exceed 10% of the current security deposit. A landlord may not charge a pet security deposit if it exceeds one and one-half times one month’s rent when combined with the regular security deposit.

In the case of Brownstone Arms v. Asher, 121 N.J. Super. 401 13 (1972), and Reilly v. Weiss, 406 N.J. Super. 71 (2009), the courts determined that advanced rents in excess of one and one-half times the monthly rental payment violate the Security Deposit Law. Therefore, any prepaid funds held to secure future rents are considered to be a part of the security deposit. This includes the last month’s rent. It does not matter how the prepaid funds are labeled. The landlord may only require one and one-half times the tenant’s monthly rent as security and the first month’s rent at the inception of the lease. That means the landlord may not require more than two and one-half times the monthly rent at the inception of the lease, this includes the security deposit and the first month’s rent.

Come spend some time, though probably better when its warmer! Walk or bike around the neighborhoods. See the differences between the hi-rise waterfront, the Downtown Brownstone Historic Districts, and an area like the Heights, cheaper, less dense, and quiet. I'm guessing the GF would prefer the latter 2. You can get a 2br in the Heights for $2K.

Don't start looking before the month you're planning to move. The fact is it's a PITA to show an occupied apartment. It's done, I've done it, but it's a pain. Besides which most apartments need a bit of work between tenants, even if it's just a bit of scrubbing and touch up paint. So in reality there's a month for the landlord to rent the apartment between leases.

But a landlord who doesn't want to risk losing another month's rent is going to want a lease in hand by the second to third week of the month. And there is the game. A brief period of musical chairs with tenants and landlords trying to match.

No fun for either side but that's the way it is. When I'm listing an apartment and somebody asks me if they could move in the next month or the one after, I have to laugh. Why would I choose to lose a month or two rent unless they were the only applicant on Earth? I'm better off dropping the rent $100 to generate more leads than losing that month's rent.

I don't know what you're talking about, the woman works the counter is very friendly, enough so that I thought she was hitting on me, fat and gray though I am!

Just had their shredded pork with small pepper for lunch, yum stuff! I love that it's not sweet and gooey like almost all Americanized take out Chinese.

I don't know but it sounds like the library is the best place to start from what someone else posted.

Why replace good doors if it's the jambs that are bad? If the door is painted its not hard to switch it around, even if it means filling in the lock holes on one side and drilling the other. But when every kid is told to go to college instead of learning a trade, this is what we get, no one to do this work. $10k for a 1 day job? Sheesh.

Yet you blamed her for the accident in your little joke. Every time someone does that they muddy the waters and give her advantage by creating for her the opportunity to tell the half-truth that she did nothing wrong.

It also feeds the meme that cyclists and pedestrians can do no wrong. I just had to dodge a young man pedaling up the sidewalk of my bike lane striped street with his nose buried in his phone.

Yet you blamed her for the accident in your little joke. Every time someone does that they muddy the waters and give her advantage by creating for her the opportunity to tell the half-truth that she did nothing wrong.