According to weather.com it is 61 degrees outside. And yet it's so damn hot in my apartment I am sitting in nothing but shorts, sweating my ass off. 

I must have the hottest freaking apartment in the country. It could be 32 outside and it's still warm with no heating on. 

But pretty soon the landlord is going to turn the heating on as per New York City law. And then my hell begins. It is so unbelievably hot when that heating comes on that I have to run my A/C all winter. I don't want to keep the windows open because I run an air cleaner because of the freakish amounts of dust in this city. Even when I open all my windows, and it's 25 degrees outside, it's still too hot. Heating in New York buildings is brutal. 

I can't turn off the radiator because it's so old and the thingy doesn't have a knob on it and I can't turn it with a wrench, plus it's encased in this ancient radiator cover and it's a nightmare to get the wrench into the little opening. 

I live on the top floor, maybe that has something to do with it? Even so, I have never known anywhere like this apartment. It must have some kind of freakish insulation properties the kind of which has never been seen anywhere else. I can't even dress until the very moment I am due to leave, because having clothes on makes me sweat so much. 

Your last paragraph says it all.

Old Building and top floor.  No insulation and the entire buildings heat load is coming directly to you.  Nothing you can do but get to a ground level setup.

maybe you are hot not apartment...

Well I've been told I'm hot on many occasions of course....

Seriously though, I think my origins have a lot to do with it....I'm from the cold windy north east of England, probably descended from Vikings...most of the people in my building are either black or Hispanic and so originate from a much hotter climate. So they're not complaining about the heat, at least not according to my landlord. 

But even so I have never been in an apartment this hot. Must be my top level status, as digi2ns says. I'm getting everyone's heat. Plus I guess the sun shining down on the roof all day can't help. Damn sometimes when I go in my apartment it's like the feeling you get when you step off a jet plane in a hot country. 

NYC, man... ;)

Humidity. There's no hiding from humidity. 

When we were in NY, I was apprehending our move to Las Vegas because I thought NY was as much as I could take. I'm a northern bird - give me a Canadian spring or a Russian autumn and I'm in heaven. :) Even winter is preferable to heat, as far as I'm concerned...

Well, I'm spending most of my time outside here on the balcony w/ my laptop, and though it gets hot even in the shades, it's much, much easier to handle than NY. Even when standing directly into the sun, when you feel like you're about to melt - at least you can breathe.

I remember the last 2 summers in NY - even inside w/ the AC on all the time, it was suffocating. And we were living in a "luxury rental" (Sliver Towers on 42nd) - new buildings, great AC and insulation. But still darn hot.

We live in a small/older condo here and if/when it gets way too hot outside, I'm 100% ok w/ a bit of AC inside.

It's 72 right now. No wind. No humidity. Almost perfect. :)

I used to have those windows wide open in the winter..  Cause those old iron water pipe heaters are so hot!!! 

What floor are you on?

Anything the sun hits on the outside, everything from hot water lines, appliance, electrical wiring and people and pets are generating heat below you which is just radiating and conducting upward until it hits you.

I bet the people on the lower floors have a hell of a heating bill in the winter compared to you LOL

You might want to get a couple of box type fans from the box store and put them in the windows....point them out side.....meaning drawing the heat from inside the apartment out.

Or if you have the set up set one on oneside of the apartment to draw air in while a different one on the other side of the apartment to draw air out.....this way you could get some cross venetlation going on....

or maybe you just could put a "BIG" skylight in that could be opened!
over the bed room ..... this way you could look at the clouds during the night ....

or lastly......maybe you could audition for the new upcoming "Ugly Naked Guy" on the old season of "Friends"........just kidding here...

But I would try the fans in the windows trick

Clifford

you need these mate

Truckermusic




Or if you have the set up set one on oneside of the apartment to draw air in while a different one on the other side of the apartment to draw air out.....this way you could get some cross venetlation going on....

     But I would try the fans in the windows trick

Clifford

EXCELLENT point if you can make it happen from one side of the apartment to the other.