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AutomationBias t1_iqyclsw wrote

It’s supposed to be heat for every habitable room. Get a cheap digital room thermometer. The minimum requirements are a heating system that will reach 64 degrees at night and 68 degrees during the day.

https://masslandlords.net/massachusetts-heat-laws/

https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massachusetts-law-about-winter-heating

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Pretty_Bed1983 t1_iqydeom wrote

Yeah, I'm gonna do that and i saw that. But I mean, I don't know if they could say just turn the heat up. Like, if I set the thing to 85, I'm pretty sure that the bedrooms do in fact reach 64/68. But then it's too hot elsewhere. So I don't know what the standard would be. I'm sure if I set the actual thermostat to 64/68 tho, that the other rooms are likely not reaching that temperature, since the thermostat only measures the air right near it (which would be warm)

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AutomationBias t1_iqye8pi wrote

Yeah, unfortunately there’s no right to being comfortable. You’ve got a case if cranking the heat doesn’t get you to 64 where you sleep, but otherwise I think you’re out of luck. I know exactly what kind of heater you’re describing, too - I rented an apartment that was exactly the same setup. I ended up sleeping on a couch by the furnace during the winter.

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Pretty_Bed1983 t1_iqyerpb wrote

You did?!? Do you know what the type of heater is called? I've never seen this before in a residential unit. I thinkkkk this house might possibly have been used as some type of office or commercial (or maybe combination business & residential) building at one point. The house was built in the 1800s I know and there's like those old EXIT type signs that you'd see in buildings from the 60's/70s.

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NoMoLerking t1_iqyo5df wrote

It’s a direct-vent space heater. I dated a girl that had an apartment heated the same way. Both bedrooms faced the living room so she and her roommate slept with their doors open in winter and a fan in each doorway blowing out (figuring the air at the floor was colder so it should blow toward the heater…no idea if it helped).

They heated (and humidified!) the kitchen with a giant lobster pot full of water over a burner on low. Good times.

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nattarbox t1_iqyirev wrote

There's a high range on the required temps too, the heat isn't supposed to exceed 78F, although every rental I had with steam radiators did lol. Telling you to heat the living room to 100F so the other rooms will be warm isn't a legal solution. And if you're paying for gas you don't want to do that anyway.

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