Is there some way for me to measure if my apartment is too inefficient?

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M

merk

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Hi all,

I moved a few months ago into an apartment. And I am wondering if my heating bill might be on the high side because the heating in the apartment isn't very good.

I think my main concern is how much air comes out of the vent when the heat is on. The air itself feels warm, but there's not a whole lot of it coming out, especially in the bedrooms which are the furthest away from the heating system. And it does eventually warm up the apartment (1100 sq ft). But going from say 66-67 to 70 can take 1.5 - 2 hours. I'm going to try and start timing it the next few times just to see how long it actually takes. Anyhow, is there any sort of standard the system needs to meet? Is there a way for me to test it? This is in Michigan.

Thanks
 
What kind of heat do you have? Heat pump air tends to be cool to the touch because it comes out cooler than your skin temperature unlike resistance electric heat, and gas or oil fired forced air. In really cold weather Heat Pumps tend to use electric resistance heat as back-up/emergency heat in cold climates. Especially with an older heat pump you want to leave it set to one temperature 24 hours a day because recovery can take a while. If you're going out of town for a few days you can turn the temperature down but know that you'll have to wait a few hours for the house to come up to temperature, unless you have a smart thermostat and can start the warming process before you get home.
 
Years ago after I got out of high school and went to work I rented a crummy little apartment where the guy had split a house into a bunch of apartments. Fall came and I turned my heat on and it seemed to do little. I soon figured out I was heating the whole building so I shut mine off and then it got cold and others fired their heaters up. Mine started getting warmer without any heat on so I left it off. You may be the guy heating the whole building.
 
Hi and thanks for the replies. So i do not think this is a heat pump. I think it's just forced hot air (sorry if my terminology is off). It's all electric. When the heat first kicks on there's no air coming out at all. After a minute or so the air flow kicks in and it is warm. I'm assuming that first minute is just it pre-heating. I can hear the fan turning on so I know it's not just an issue of it taking a minute for the fan to get up to speed. It's just not on for the first minute.

And I don't think I am heating the whole building. It's a series of 2 floor buildings, 8 units per building. Each unit takes up one corner. And i think they were built in the mid 80's.

Obviously I'm not an expert in this, but to me the only potential issue to me seems to be the amount of air coming out of the vents. The vent closest to the heater has a small amount of air coming out of it. But the rest of the vents have what seems to me almost no air flow. So I'm just wondering if there's some way to test the air flow and if there's any sort of acceptable standard.
 
Does your apartment have central air conditioning? If so, do you know where the outside unit is located? It can be difficult to casually identify an AC unit from a Heat Pump. The outside of the units look nearly identical. The heat pump can internally swap directions of the refrigerant to go from AC to heating. If you have central AC and you know where your outside compressor is located, go look at it when your heat is blowing. If the outside unit is running you have a heat pump. It isn't unusual for the air temperature on a heat pump to be in the 80F range. Where a gas or oil fired forced air system air will run up to 100F or better.

As to air flow there are usually dampers located on the main trunk line that allow you to adjust the air flow to individual branch lines. However they may be buried behind the drywall. If you have access to the air handler and the ducts come off of the plenum at the air handler you may be able to adjust them.

Damper
 
Sparky617 said:
Does your apartment have central air conditioning? If so, do you know where the outside unit is located? It can be difficult to casually identify an AC unit from a Heat Pump. The outside of the units look nearly identical. The heat pump can internally swap directions of the refrigerant to go from AC to heating. If you have central AC and you know where your outside compressor is located, go look at it when your heat is blowing. If the outside unit is running you have a heat pump. It isn't unusual for the air temperature on a heat pump to be in the 80F range. Where a gas or oil fired forced air system air will run up to 100F or better.

As to air flow there are usually dampers located on the main trunk line that allow you to adjust the air flow to individual branch lines. However they may be buried behind the drywall. If you have access to the air handler and the ducts come off of the plenum at the air handler you may be able to adjust them.

Damper
Click to expand...
Yes it has central AC. The reason I do not think there is a heat pump is because I installed a nest thermostat when I moved in and if i remember correctly the wiring was not for a heat pump system. Plus I assumed heat pumps were something only newer apartments would be likely to have. I have not heard any of my neighbors units running since the weather has gotten colder. I will double check though tomorrow to see if the outside unit is running when the heat is on.

EDIT: Just opened the closet to see if there was anything that looked like it could be a damper and I could not find anything. However, pretty sure there isn't a heat pump since the label on the unit says direct vent forced air furnace with cooling unit
 
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