(no subject)

[hathycol]

Gosh. It's chilly. Really, really chilly.

Indoors.

Allow me to explain. For some quite sensible cost and environmental reasons, heating is rationed throughout all St Andrews residences. This is a good idea, because people are losers when it comes to looking after the environment, so this is a good idea to keep the buggars under control. Brilliant!

Erm, less so at the moment. I like looking after the world, and I don't tend to put the heating on. I'd rather put on more layers on, you see.

This is ridiculous, though. Currently, I've got tights on under my jeans, socks, two jumpers, a t-shirt, and I'm debating putting on the hobo gloves too because my hands are freezing to death and it's still deathly cold.

Last year, I lived in Gatty under similar conditions - old house, not much heating - but I never remember being too cold. This is different. This is arctic. You see, we work on the same heating schedule as DRA. DRA has underfloor heating, triple-glazing, and is an extremely modern building, with lots of insulations. These were built in the 70s, single-glazing, rotting window frames and heating that's erratic at best. It will, at times, randomly turn off for an hour during the heating hours. And when the heating has gone, it just leaves the house. So we freeze to death.

Hence the many, many layers. Good fun.

My skin is currently going to hell via dry skin and a spot attack (the hell, body? Simon isn't coming to visit for ages, you normally wait until the day before to pull this one!). I also need to pluck my eyebrows something terrible, but Sarah has nicked my tweezers so I am going to have to look like a hairy beast for a while. Or until tonight, when I've had my shower in the hours of heating (it's too cold to shower when we don't have heating on) and it won't hurt so much.

Right. Research!

Comments

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Man oh man. You want me to mail you a window insulation kit? The kind where you take a bit of plastic and tape it to the walls around the window frames to keep the breeze from coming through the single-glazed windows? They're very popular around here and I've just done my whole house with them.
Also insulated drapes would help but they're expensive.



Start making records of the temperature inside the house at various hours, and then when you complain to the housing authorities about this, you can have a much more compelling case than "it gets really cold in here wahh". They're more likely to take you seriously if you say, "It reached thirty-five degrees at two in the morning; we're risking death in our sleep because these houses are so poorly-insulated."
Etc.

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

We can't alter the house without getting pretty severely fined for it, even if what we're doing is improving it. And as for complaining? My housemate has severe damp and mould against one of her walls, that a private landlord would probably get taken to court for, but the university Cares Not, because we're in the cheap seats. Short of the house actively falling down (it's a possibility) then they won't do anything. The houses have been in a terrible state for years, and the heating regime has been in for two or three years with no alteration.

The general conclusion is that it's going to be worth the hassle of getting somewhere on the private market next year. More expensive, more hassle, less death-risking.

[shoe--gal.livejournal.com]

It doesn't get much better when you're out of uni accommodation either...I'm currently working wearing a hat and under a blanket! Basically we can't afford to use the stupidly expensive LPG central heating and so it's freezing. I do feel pretty dumb in the hat, but it really helps!

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

Honestly, though, I am fairly resistant to cold. I am a Hard Northern bird and normally it takes snow for me to don a hat and scarf. Now I want to put it on in my house. STUPID.

[tau_sigma]

Wear the hobo gloves. I quite often wear mine indoors when it's cold, but I think I have abnormal hands and wrists. But goodness, that sucks quite a bit. Try boiling kettles and running hot baths to warm the place up? You don't have to pay for your electricity separately, do you, so if it runs up large bills it's the uni's problem and not your own?

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

We don't have a bath, and the fire doors work in a way to isloate the shower and the bathrooms; it's ridiculous.

We have got into the habit of turning the oven on full blast and sitting in front of that. It's not much, but it'll do. I think.

I dread to think what it'll be like when the snows start.

[tau_sigma]

Oh. Oh dear. :s When the snows start, you can be reduced to burning essays for heat! ...possibly it's just me that appeals to. *hugs of warmth*

[sevenhelz.livejournal.com]

*hug*
*sends you thigh-high socks*
i take it you have tried complaining to the council then?
xxx

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

Ugh, don't tempt me!

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

Ha. Complain to the council and there's a good chance they'll take the HMO licence away. At this point, I don't trust the uni to give us extra accommodation if that does happen.

*cries*

[hyrnetanga.livejournal.com]

What about getting some fan heaters? I know it means spending money you really shouldn't have to spend, but maybe it's better than freezing to death.

[sevenhelz.livejournal.com]

come and live with me instead :)
xx