‘Dumb Timers' Wasting Precious Energy; Supers Try To Control Heat

Many New York City apartment buildings are equipped with antiquated devices called heat timers that date back to the 1930s. "It's a dumb timer, and that's what most buildings have," the chief executive officer of Optimum Applied Systems, Ed Winiarski, said.

They barely control how much heat serves a building — a monstrous waste, says the maker of one new computerized system programmed to turn on and off as the conditions require and give reports to building management.

Mr. Winiarski even says his device can help reduce America's dependency on foreign oil without Americans' significantly altering their lifestyles.

A tall order, but especially nowadays, when many people use hand-held mobile computers to do everything from check e-mail to play solitaire, Mr. Winiarski said, why not allow building managers to control how much heat apartments use by a similar remote device via the Internet?

"We're worried about vehicles when we should be worried about buildings," he said. His device replaces the heat timers with sophisticated sensors to monitor temperatures throughout the building. "It'll tell the boiler, okay, I'm good, turn off," he said.

While many buildings in Gotham still feature the so-called dumb timer, most automated systems allow building managers to monitor temperatures in individual apartments, track how much heat and hot water a building uses, and apply the information to diagnose problems and prevent them from reoccurring.

In addition to saving money, the device helps forestall another common aggravation for building managers: that buildings sometimes feel so hot that tenants are forced to keep their windows open to compensate for the steamy conditions.

"How often do you walk down any street, whether it's Manhattan, the Bronx, and you see windows open?" he said. "What are we doing? We're heating the streets."

Mr. Winiarski isn't the only manufacturer of devices that control heating by computer, but he says his is one of the few that allows remote control of buildings.

"The boiler will speak to you," he said."You're able to control your buildings from anywhere in the globe because it's Internet based. You could be on Miami Beach controlling your buildings in the Bronx."

With heating prices frequently an important part of a family's financial decision-making for fall and winter, distributors of home heating oil have begun transcending the typical pricing mechanisms that help decide how much they'll charge.

BJ's Wholesale Club, the discount chain based in Massachusetts, announced earlier this week that homeowners could pay fixed rates they sign up for in almost seven dozen markets, including New York.