It’s wife versus husband. Roommate against roommate. Son versus mother. Tenant against landlord.
The onset of freezing temperatures in Chicago marks the start of winter heat wars. The battlefield is the thermostat, and victory is control of the temperature inside as the chilling wind whips against the windows. What’s toasty warm for some is uncomfortably stifling for others, and the result can be arguments, standoffs, even complaints to the city.
The routine is all too familiar for Meredith Breuer and her fiance, Eric Spitz. Breuer gets home from work about 5:30 p.m. to find the thermostat at 62 degrees — what she considers positively arctic.
Spitz, who arrives home to their Wrigleyville apartment first, tells her, “Put on a coat, wear a blanket.”
Sometimes she gets her way by pouting, and he allows her to ratchet up the heat to 70 or 71. Other times, they end up arguing over whose lap gets warmed by Winston, their Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, whom they describe as “the built-in heater.”
“Whoever’s in a better mood usually gives in faster,” she said.
In Melrose Park, Hugo Hernandez, 25, lives with his mother, who keeps the temperature of their apartment hovering around 75 degrees — much too warm for his tastes.
“I try to stay out of the apartment as much as possible,” he said. “I hate it.”
As a predicted cold snap promises to chill bones across Chicagoland, fierce thermostat battles are already breaking out across gender lines, generational divides and otherwise blissful domestic arrangements.
The frustration for some is a loss of control — and not always just to a loved one.
Many older rental buildings still have old-school boilers or furnaces that don’t allow for personal command of the temperature. In many cases the landlord prefers, for budget reasons, to keep the setting at the Chicago-mandated minimums of 68 degrees by day, 66 by night.
But some tenants like it much toastier. They say they’re uncomfortable all winter and have to take drastic measures like using their oven or steamy shower as a secondary heat source.
The complaints pile in, and sometimes the city is asked to investigate.
Bill McCaffrey, spokesman for Chicago’s Department of Buildings said the city has checked more than 3,200 complaints about heat so far since September — down this year because of a relatively balmy autumn. Of this year’s complaints, fewer than 20 percent had merit, he said, meaning the heat was mostly fine by city standards.
One complaint came from Joyce White, 69, who lives in a federally subsidized apartment building in the 800 block of East 65th Street.
Shortly after daybreak Tuesday, the South Side resident had a large restaurant-style soup pot boiling with water on her stove, the oven turned on high, a hot shower running in the bathroom, and a space heater revving up in the living room.
“My walls are sweating,” White said, standing in the living room of her two-bedroom apartment.
Because of repeated complaints, city officials inspected the building on three occasions and found that the heat was working properly. The building’s management company received a minor violation for another reason: A tenant was using an oven to generate heat — something building officials strictly prohibit.
Cullen Davis, chief executive of Urban Property Advisors, the firm that manages White’s building, said the structure has been outfitted with heat sensors and the temperature is kept at 68 degrees in the day and 72 degrees at night, 6 degrees above the city’s overnight requirement.
“This is a time-honored discussion that we have every year,” Davis said. Some of “our residents would prefer the building be significantly warmer than 72.”
In West Rogers Park, Nancy Beckett said keeping warm is never a problem in her condo. Instead, the owner of a creative-writing studio wears flip-flops and tank tops in winter. The 64-unit building, built in 1929, still relies on its original boiler, pumping too much heat into her unit on the third floor. Other units are far less steamy.
“I feel like I live in the tropics,” she said cheerily, though she is not as thrilled about chapped lips from the dry air. During class in her living room Thursday nights, “everyone starts stripping.”
But what about the discrepancy in comfort levels between people who, for lots of other reasons, choose to live together in close quarters? Why are some internal thermostats set higher than others? Experts point to all kinds of reasons, including weight, age, sometimes gender and even mental health.
Dr. Ronnie Mandal, who specializes in internal medicine at Swedish Covenant Hospital, addressed the central conflict among couples by noting that men have more muscle mass, causing them to create more heat than women.
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“We know that muscle burns more calories — that alone lends itself to creating more heat.” Mandal said.
One married couple, Bruce Rogers and Jane Kuelbs of Evanston, stumbled on an ingenious solution to their thermostat war.
If Rogers had his way, he’d be walking around his family’s two-story 1890s-era farmhouse barefoot, in jeans and a T-shirt, with the thermostat at 71 degrees. Kuelbs, a knitter, likes it cooler, so she can bundle up in a sweater or wool socks. With a new geothermal heating system, the family keeps it brisk upstairs and toasty downstairs.
“We have different zones,” Rogers said.
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Space heater safety
If you plan to use a space heater, follow these guidelines recommended by the Chicago Fire Department.
*Never use a fuel-burning appliance without proper vents to the outside. Burning fuel (kerosene, coal or propane, for example) produces deadly fumes.
*Be sure your heater is in good working condition. All room heaters need frequent checkups and cleaning. A dirty or neglected heater is a fire hazard.
*Use only the proper fuel. Never introduce a fuel into a unit not designed for that fuel.
*Keep gasoline or other flammable liquids stored outside of the home.
*Maintain adequate clearance in all directions around space heaters and heating stoves — three feet at minimum. (Surrounding surfaces should not become too hot for your bare hand.)
*If you use an electric heater, be sure your house wiring is adequate. Avoid overloading the circuit or extension cords. Avoid using Kerosene heaters.
*Don’t overfill an oil unit, as fuel expands as it warms. Also, don’t fill your heater while it is burning.
*Keep young children away from space heaters — particularly when they are wearing nightgowns. A nightgown can be sucked in and ignited.
*Turn off your heater or turn it low before going to bed. When using a fuel-burning heater in a bedroom, open the window to prevent suffocation that can be caused by a heater consuming oxygen.
For more tips, go to egov.cityofchicago.org and enter the search terms “winter fire safety.”
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A reason to stay warm
See photos of winter in Chicago at chicagotribune .com/winterland