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Help me. I'm freezing!

mobobuff

mobobuff

Lifer
It's too late to call maintenance, but it's 43 degrees in my apartment because my heat is not working.

It's a hot water baseboard heating system. Is it possible there could be air in the line? I see the bleed valve on the pipe before it leaves the apartment, should I attempt to bleed it? I don't think I have a slotted screw driver, though.

There's an electronic valve regulator that I can get to, it's hooked up to the thermostat, I unplugged the power to it so I could manually turn the valve, but it does nothing. If I feel the pipe in front of the valve (the feeding line coming into the apartment) it's ice cold. I already went downstairs to the boiler room to check all the pipes, they're all extremely hot and you can feel water traffic in them. But my apartment is FREEZING! If I go out into the stairwell, I can feel the heat out there working. It seems like it's just my apartment.

What are the chances of an apartment complex having shut off valves for each individual apartment? I didn't think this complex did, because they don't charge anything for the heat. Any ideas?!?!? PLEASE!

Cliffs:
1. My apartment heat doesn't work, and I'm in Michigan.
2. I CAN SEE MY BREATH
3. Too late in the evening to call maintenance.

Updated:
Space heaters were doing absolutely nothing. So I got out my toolbox and went to work on the bleed valves. Let all the air out (there was a lot) until they started spewing old water, let them bleed a little more until the water cleared up and became hot. Closed them off and BAM! Scalding water running through the entire system. My apartment is getting warmer as I speak. Called up the landlord, thinking they might be mad at me for toying with the plumbing, but they actually offered me a job. I got a kick out of that.
 
Do you have a gas stove? If so, turn on the oven and open up the oven door. That should get the kitchen (at least) nice and toasty in about 20 minutes.

Do you still have hot water? Take a hot shower, and dry yourself off very quickly, bundle up.


 
I'm wearing two layers of everything. My toesies are cold! My noes won't stop running 🙁.

This SUCKS! There IS a 24-hour emergency maintenance number... do you think this is an emergency? How cold do you have to be for how long to be considered hypothermic?
 
Well, if the heat outside is working, just open your door and sleep in the doorway. 🙂

Doesn't your apartment have an emergency maintenance #?
 
Originally posted by: Tiamat
Do you have a gas stove? If so, turn on the oven and open up the oven door. That should get the kitchen (at least) nice and toasty in about 20 minutes.

Do you still have hot water? Take a hot shower, and dry yourself off very quickly, bundle up.
Click to expand...

Stove is electric, I turned on all the burners, which made the kitchen slightly warmer, but I hate to think what it was doing to my electric bill. A hot shower does sound nice, but I'd hate to think about how cold I would be after getting out. My testicles would ascend for sure.
 
Originally posted by: mobobuff
Originally posted by: Tiamat
Do you have a gas stove? If so, turn on the oven and open up the oven door. That should get the kitchen (at least) nice and toasty in about 20 minutes.

Do you still have hot water? Take a hot shower, and dry yourself off very quickly, bundle up.
Click to expand...

Stove is electric, I turned on all the burners, which made the kitchen slightly warmer, but I hate to think what it was doing to my electric bill. A hot shower does sound nice, but I'd hate to think about how cold I would be after getting out. My testicles would ascend for sure.
Click to expand...

Run the shower hot and don't hop in. Call Maint. Emergency Number, 'cause if the pipes explode due to freezing....
 
Originally posted by: mobobuff
Originally posted by: Tiamat
Do you have a gas stove? If so, turn on the oven and open up the oven door. That should get the kitchen (at least) nice and toasty in about 20 minutes.

Do you still have hot water? Take a hot shower, and dry yourself off very quickly, bundle up.
Click to expand...

Stove is electric, I turned on all the burners, which made the kitchen slightly warmer, but I hate to think what it was doing to my electric bill. A hot shower does sound nice, but I'd hate to think about how cold I would be after getting out. My testicles would ascend for sure.
Click to expand...

This constitutes as an emergency. Call the number.

Yeah, electric bill would be astronomical. If you take a hot shower, and quickly put on layers, you should be fine. You need to wear a hat as much of your body heat is lost through the head. Gloves, double socks...
 
Call the apartment people, it is cold and you pay rent for heat. This is considered an emergency, but if the temp outside is 65 = not an emergency

I second the oven suggestion, crank it up and let it get nice and hot for a few mins then open that bad boy up and warm up.
 
Okay, I just called emergency maintenance, and she was very very nice. She said it absolutely WAS an emergency. They're sending someone out now.

Thank you ATOT! I wouldn't have called without your assurance. :heart:

They shouldn't charge me, should they?
 
Originally posted by: mobobuff
Okay, I just called emergency maintenance, and she was very very nice. She said it absolutely WAS an emergency. They're sending someone out now.

Thank you ATOT! I wouldn't have called without your assurance. :heart:

They shouldn't charge me, should they?
Click to expand...

I would think. The contract states that you get heat, they are just fulfilling their contract. There is no extra service here.
 
What's the next thread going to be OP? I've been stabbed! Is this an emergency? Should I call 911?
 
Indeed.

There was a problem with the people I called, they said that they no longer had the contract for my building, and I had to search for another number, and I ended up waking up a poor lady who worked for the new company. She was totally cool though, and walked me through all the redudant trouble shooting things that I had already done a million times, but I humored her. She said she couldn't get anyone out before 9:00, and told me to keep her informed. She then spoke to a technician who said the pipes might burst, she called me back freaking out and had me drive to Meijer to buy space heaters. I bought 4 ceramic Honeywell oscillating heaters, but I can't have more than one on any circuit or it trips the breaker (I was afraid of this when she told me to buy them), but I managed to get two running on separate circuits, one is sharing a line with my computer. They should be able to warm up the pipes, and get a small current flowing that will warm the rest of the pipes. So in the mean time I've parked myself next to one of the heaters. At least my feet are warm. She is going to reimburse me for the heaters, and the extra cost on my electric bill. Woot!
 
Originally posted by: mobobuff
She is going to reimburse me for the heaters, and the extra cost on my electric bill. Woot!
Click to expand...

Go buy the whole stock at Meijer.
Get reimbursed for them.
Sell them on eBay.
...
Profit!!
 
Originally posted by: gsethi
Originally posted by: mobobuff
She is going to reimburse me for the heaters, and the extra cost on my electric bill. Woot!
Click to expand...

Go buy the whole stock at Meijer.
Get reimbursed for them.
Sell them on eBay.
...
Profit!!
Click to expand...

Nah, something tells me she'll want them, considering she (will have) paid for them. That would be cool though, but I doubt it.
 
Space heaters were doing absolutely nothing. So I got out my toolbox and went to work on the bleed valves. Let all the air out (there was a lot) until they started spewing old water, let them bleed a little more until the water cleared up and became hot. Closed them off and BAM! Scalding water running through the entire system. My apartment is getting warmer as I speak. Called up the landlord, thinking they might be mad at me for toying with the plumbing, but they actually offered me a job. I got a kick out of that.
 
I like to sleep with my notebook on when it's cold. The heat coming from it makes me feel warm and fuzzy.
 
Originally posted by: UncleWai
I like to sleep with my notebook on when it's cold. The heat coming from it makes me feel warm and fuzzy.
Click to expand...

My notebook doesn't produce enough heat even at 100% cpu usage. My desktop on the other hand, throw some 3D stuff on there and the graphics card could boil water.
 
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