Heating Law Changes Will Require More Pro-active Maintenance

Changes to Local Law 86 slated to take effect on October 1, 2017 are likely to boost fuel costs and put more pressure on heating systems. During the designated heating season – October 1 through May 31 – residential buildings will now have to maintain an internal temperature of no less than 62 degrees Fahrenheit during the night, from 10 P.M. to 6 A.M., instead of the current 55-degree minimum.
 
What’s more, the new minimum will no longer be contingent on how cold its gets outside. That’s a change from the current law, which states that the 55-degree minimum is triggered only when temperatures outside dip below 40 degrees. The internal minimum temperature required during daytime hours, between 6 A.M. and 10 P.M., will remain at 68 degrees.
 
The stricter heating rules probably won’t have much of an impact on higher end condos, co-ops and other multi-unit buildings, according to Mitchell Ingerman, president of Aurora Energy Advisors. “We don’t believe they’ve ever let these buildings get that cold” at night, he says, adding that it’s too soon to know definitively whether the new rules will cause fuel consumption and costs to rise.  
The changes were “probably aimed more toward the slumlords who wouldn’t provide [adequate] heat, and this will be giving residents an outlet to call 311 to say they’re in violation of the law,” says Mark Levine, a principal at EBMG Management, which operates nearly 100 buildings across all five boroughs.
 
But building owners will need to be more vigilant about preventative maintenance for boilers and related equipment to protect against outages. The increased pressure on heating systems that are not used to keeping temperatures in the 60-70 degree range will likely lead to an increase in service calls during the heating season.    
 
Marie Rossillo, president of a 149-unit co-op in the Windsor Terrace section of Brooklyn, said she doesn’t anticipate having to step up preventative maintenance because of the rule changes. Her building, which installed a dual-fuel system in 1998, typically schedules a maintenance service call twice a year – before turning on the heat in October and after closing it down at the end of May.
 
Doug Weinstein, vice president of operations at Akam Associates, which manages 200 condo and co-op buildings across the city, recommends that, as a preventive measure, buildings install a stack thermometer, which measures the temperature of the exhaust gas coming out of boilers. Rising temperatures indicate that soot is collecting on a boiler’s cleaning surfaces, which reduces the heat transfer and makes it operate less efficiently.
 
Another step Akam has taken in several of its buildings is to switch from an outside weatherhead to a more sophisticated system that uses interior sensors in both common areas and in certain apartments that more accurately read indoor temperatures. Consequently, Weinstein says, “we accomplish a more stringent adherence to the regulations, because you’re actually measuring inside temperatures, which are what the regulations are based upon. And the boiler is operating more efficiently.”
 
Property owners who are not yet maintaining a 62-degree minimum at night “are going to have to be more proactive with pricing out oil or gas, trying to lock in prices,” says Levine of EBMG. “We lock in prices for oil about half the time when we think the market is going to edge up.”