More heating joys

[wiseheart]

As I said, heating finally came back yesterday afternoon and everything seemed fine and dandy last night. This morning the radiators were barely lukewarm, but that happens when the weather isn't very cold outside - the stupid central thermostat dials down the heating. So far so bad. Usually, it comes back in the evening when it gets colder again.

Well, it did come back, even if not with the usual intensity - save for the study where I spend my evenings at the computer, next to the outer wall. There the radiator is practically cold. The wall isn't isolated, so you can imagine what it feels like working there.

We used to have this particular problem a couple of years ago: the heating not working properly in this one room. Lately, though, it has been all right - until now. Mum will have to call the janitor tomorrow again and complain.

God, I'm so fed up with this constant heating misery! It's not normal that when I want to work in the study I need to put on several more layers and am still cold!

Comments

[meathiel]

God, I'm so fed up with this constant heating misery! I totally feel you even though it's mainly the warm water here. Though the heating runs in funny circles in our house - it sometimes stops working even though it's not warm in the room. We still haven't managed to figure out why!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Same thing with the study heating. And it isn't just in our flat - the same problem pops up in every single room situated above and below us. The whole strang is somehow unadjusted; they've corrected the problem once, but now that they had to do the repairs on this side of the house they apparently screwed it up again.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

Maybe you should think about moving?

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

God, no! Our living conditions count as highly desirable, despite the erratic heating in the study. I've simply opened the double door to the living room (the study was usually meant to be a sleeping niche of 7 square metres, just like my bedroom) and allow some of the warmth in. It isn't an ideal solution, as I'm utterly disinterested in the tv shows Mum likes to watch, but, well...

And tomorrow we'll call the janitor again. Half an hour ago the radiator warmed up considerably, but now it's almost cold again. *sigh*

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

Really? With the leaky balcony and everything? I'm glad you had an easy fix.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Well, it isn't quite fixed yet, but we're hoping.

And yeah, these concrete monstrosities are actually very comfortable. You've got central heating, you've got unlimited access to hot water, every room has roughly the same temperature, and when there's a problem the janitor takes care of it. I hear my colleagues who own houses three times the size of our little flat how much bother it is to make everything work properly, from the heating through the gas and the electricity to the walkways being cleaned in case of a snowfall, so yeah, we're rather lucky.

As for the leaky balcony, that's annoying, true, but that isn't the building's shortcoming. Those balconies were originally built as open ones; the individual actions of close them caused the fault. Not ours, that one was done properly; somewhere above us there's a hole and the water finds its way through the cracks of concrete to us. Which is why we don't know where it comes from.

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

It sounds so weird to me that all your heating and hot water is centralised. Even when I lived in a flat, the hot water and heating was set up for my flat only and if it broke or needed replacing I had to sort it out.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

This is a fairly common practice over here. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, during the large population booms, lots of those ten-storey concrete monstrosities were built, and the easiest way was to centralize everything. After all, in one of such house there are more than 200 flats. Our janitor takes care of 6 such houses; I imagine he's a fairly busy man.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

As long as you are comfortable, then that's what matters.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

These flats do have their disadvantages, of course. First of all, they are fairly small, especially the bathroom is so tiny that you have just enough room to stand between the sink and the washing machine. But it's still better than living in some subletted space.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

I remember being in a small flat in London and it would have fit entirely in our living room. There was only room for one person in the kitchen and you could sit on the toilet and lean over the sink at the same time. Too small for my tastes.

Our place is just short of 2,000 square feet (almost 607 meters) and even that feels small some days.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, our toilet is situated in its own shoebox next to the bath. But yeah, sometimes I'd love to have a bit more living space. A workroom would be nice; crafting is such an effort because of the need to find everything before I start and to put everything away afterwards, so that I'd find them again next time.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

I think no matter how much room you have, there's always something that could be a little bigger.

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

How very frustrating. I hope you can get it fixed soon.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

So do I; our current janitor is a lot more efficient than the previous one was, so... *fingers crossed*

[elwenlj.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you may need to bleed the radiator. It's possible some air has got into the system.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

It seems to have recovered for the time being. I wonder how long it will last.

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

Oh man!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

[mirasaui.livejournal.com]

I feel for you! Nothing is more miserable than being cold. We just had two days of blessed warmth here and now a cold front is on its way back. But our winter is nothing compared to yours. And having no heat - I'm cold just thinking about it.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was very unpleasant. Thank God it is over now.