The heating in my apartment was switched off since yesterday and the apartment gets quite cold at night - around 15C. Is there a fixed date in Zurich for heating to be switched off? Or is there a minimum temperature that the apartment should keep?
I'm thinking of writing to the landlord and ask the heating to be turned on again but would like to check before taking any action. Plus I'm not sure if writing to the landlord will help or should I just go and buy a small heater myself...
Thank you for everyone's reply in Advance!
Cheap b@stards!!
And it's stupid, because I pay for my own heating anyway! And I'm sometimes freezing!
Secondly, it can't hurt to ask the landlord (or his/her agent) politely whether the heating has been turned off, and could be turned on again. If the answer's no, just accept it and invest in one of these fashionable items:
I live in an old house with crappy windows for a year and a half now..it has been cold and I sort of made it through last winter..but winter is here again and it's unbearably cold at home and I am getting sick!
So, the heat is set too be off during the night after about 10pm. Even during the day, if I turn up the heat to the highest, it usually stays at around 19/20c, 21 top.
Last month, when outside was about 8c, my room temperature was like 18/19 degree top. So I called the landlord and said its too cold in the apartment, he sent a guy to come look at my place a week later with his professional thermometer, but a few days before he came the apartment was so warm and it was almost 23c, which has never happened before! So I think he actually came secretly 2 days before the visit to turn up the heat and then turn it down after he left. As it became 20/21c top again.
I told him he has to turn the heat a bit higher for the whole house, there are four households and I live on the ground floor. But he refused and said if they turn up the heat then the people upstairs will be too hot and they might have to open some windows and that will waste energy. And he said the Heizung detects how cold the weather outside is, then it give a higher heat. The landlord also refused to do anything and said the same thing, said the nebenkosten will be much higher and not fair to the others who live upstairs. I had to pay about 360chf last year for the Heizung cost.
I asked some of my colleagues, some pays around this price but they get to control when and how high heat they want, some even got some money back the end of the year as they didn't need to turn on the heat That much. Then they told me to join the mieterverband.
So my question is, should I join this verband? What can they do for me? Has anyone here had any experiences with the Mieterverband to deal with the particular Heizung situation? I am not happy about paying the Heizung which I don't get to control and "enjoy". Now the thermometer next to my bedside table says 15.9c and the heat is completely off. Outside is two degree!!
I know the best solution is to move out...but it's not easy to find an aprt, with affordable price and close to where I work, but I am looking constantly. As long as I see something better I am moving!
Sorry about this long post, but any constructive suggestions will be very much appreciated!
Thanks a lot!
Thermostatic valve is Danfoss and there is no spot to bleed air. Any idea?
It isn't unusual, some of the passages can get clogged, particularly if the radiator is old. It can also take a fair while for the whole rad to warm up. The pump only delivers a low volume - so it takes a while to flow across the radiator.
That one side of the rad is warm indicates that the thermo valve is in fact letting hot water in.
If there were air in it then you would normally be able to hear it, and the rad would be cooler at the top than the bottom (or possibly the other way around).
I waited like 2 hours; one half became really hot (top and bottom) and the other remained cold.The radiator doesn't look like old.
We have three more radiators and when I set them to max, it took like 20 minutes to get hot (almost the same size/volume btw).
Should I wait more?
You might try turning the other two radiators down to the lowest setting . this will mean that there will be less flow through them, and the suspect rad should warm up over the whole surface as it is then the path of least resistance.
b.t.w. Did you note down what the thermostats were set to when you set them? This is always a good idea: When you wake up at 03:00 in a sweat because the rads are all at full belt, then you can set them to be half way between where they were, and where you set them to in the afternoon.
Only women think that by turning a thermostat, or anything else to max, it will bring it to the temperature you want faster.
I have tried explaining this to my wife and other women on numerous occasions and they just don't get it.
Set it to the temperature you want and it will get there just as fast as any other way.
P.S. Bleed your radiators.
I didn't pay enough attention to the thermostatic valve setting. It's a good suggestion that I better note the settings.
The heating system here takes 24 hours to respond. And it doesn't make any difference whether you put in on maximum or minimum. Actually, whatever you do, it doesn't matter, since it basically live its own life. We have heating in some rooms, some parts of some rooms, or not at all, and it changes from one day to another. Bloody irritating.
Not sure why Serk had to be rude - she was doing exactly what I was trying to point out.
Here's an analogy.
You're driving at 10Km/h and you want to get to 60Km/h.
You slam your foot down on the accelerator and you'll get to 60Km/h faster than if you had just given a little nudge on the accelerator.
Easy to understand? Yes? Thermostats don't work like that.
Here's the thermostat analogy:
You're driving at 10Km/h and you want to get to 60Km/h.
You select 60km/h with the cruise control. It takes, for example, four seconds to get to 60Km/h.
However, if you selected 180Km/h with the cruise control thinking that you'll get to 60Km/h in a shorter time than if you had just selected 60km/h then you'd be wrong. It would still take four seconds.
Thermostats work like that.
1) you haven't read what's written as a problem,
2) no need to be a Mr Einstein to assert what you repeatedly write,
3) there are tons of people asking similar questions (though mostly top-hot& bottom-cold questions),
4) totally moronic (I'm now being extremely polite) to refer to women for such a simple Q&A,
5) I'm not rude,
6) you hijacked the thread,
7) you've summoned the-no-we-don't-have-it-here god,
Seriously?! Wth is wrong with you? You have an answer/suggestion, write it.
Dude, read the first post of mine ffs and the following one.
What's that car analogy btw?! Are you serious? (Real question)
Same answer to them
It was an observation of a mistake - which you made too.
Debatable.
It wasn't your thread.
Can an atheist summon a god?
No be a good girl and take a few photos of your radiator, post them here and we can show you where the bleed-valve is as you are unable to find it yourself.
(patronising? Oh yes!)