What to do if the radiators in the apartment are barely warm, where to turn?

Warmth in the house is one of the main conditions for normal, healthy living in it. Therefore, all apartments are connected to a centralized heating system that operates for a certain season, or they have their own autonomous heating system.

The second option is a guarantee that you can always create the necessary warm atmosphere in your home and heat the room to a comfortable temperature.

Consumers connected to district heating are dependent on how well and consistently this utility service will be provided by a responsible organization.

And if the radiators heat the apartment poorly, and in some rooms they are even cold, you have to find out the reasons for this discomfort and the low quality of the services of the heat supplier.

Occasionally, barely warm radiators are the result of an accident on the line; more often, the problem is in the pipeline itself or poor operation of the boiler room. When batteries run poorly, where can you complain? It is important to know the answer to the question, because in winter, staying without a normal room temperature is dangerous to your health.

Responsibility

In the housing and communal services sector, there are heat supply organizations that are responsible for supplying heat to apartments in apartment buildings and maintaining the temperature in accordance with sanitary and hygienic standards. They receive appropriate payment for their services.

When purchasing an apartment, the owner signs an agreement through the management company with such a heat supply organization, in which both parties assert their rights and obligations.

It is the responsibility of the consumer to pay for the heat received in a timely manner and in full. But the service provider must also monitor the uninterrupted supply of heat to homes. The heat supply is turned on and off at certain times. The beginning and end of the heating season is determined by local authorities depending on the climatic characteristics of the region.

But when making its decision, the municipality must also be based on the norms of the Government of the Russian Federation, number 354.

IMPORTANT! If the supplier has violated his obligations, the heating in the apartment is weak or completely cold, you need to notify the supplier and get him to fulfill his obligations.

You cannot remain indifferent to such circumstances and wait until the problem resolves itself. The heat supply organization may not be aware of heating problems in a particular house or apartment.

How to act

Most apartments are still connected to a centralized heating system; their owners cannot regulate the temperature in their living spaces themselves. If one of the residents of an apartment building discovers only slightly warm radiators in the apartment, what should be done in this case?

ATTENTION! The organization of housing and communal services in apartment buildings is now carried out by Management Companies.

It is your management company that should be contacted first when a low battery temperature is detected . The temperature in the apartments must meet the standards; management employees are responsible for this:

A call to the management manager is the first step in case of poor heating. You can assign the call to the chairman of the house council. The dispatcher may know why the heating system in a house or neighborhood is not working well. In this case, he reports the cause of the problem and the time frame for its elimination.
If there is an accident, the dispatcher must report whether repairs are being carried out and when they are completed.
Certain time standards have been established for eliminating a heating system failure during the heating period.
Due to accidents, heating may be out for no more than 24 hours per month.
If the temperature drops to 12 degrees, heating cannot be turned off for more than 16 hours.
When the temperature in the apartment is below 12 degrees, turn on the heating after at least 4-8 hours.
If these time standards are violated, consumers have the right to demand a recalculation for this service.

What to do if the apartment is cold?

If at the beginning or the height of the heating season one battery in the apartment or the entire circuit does not work, you must seek help from the organization that supplies the home with heat. To do this, just carefully read the payment receipt. She comes monthly. It must indicate:

address of the heat supply organization;
hotline or emergency service telephone number;
if possible, the address of the organization’s website.

Using this data, it is easy to contact specialists and ask them for help if the heat is on but the batteries are cold.

What is the piping of an electric heating boiler? How to do it correctly?
The correct electrical diagram for connecting an electric heating boiler is described here.

Try bleeding the air, maybe that's the reason.

How soon should the issue of heating at home be resolved? According to current legislation, the problem associated with insufficient heating at home must be resolved within the following time frame:

within 16 hours if the room temperature is within +12°C;
after 4 hours, if the air in the apartment has warmed up to +10°C.

For each hour exceeding the specified limit, payment for heat provided should be reduced by 10-15%, according to the current tariff. This applies to cases where the radiators in the apartment are not completely heated. What to do if radiators remain cold in a separate room or separate wiring? If the radiator does not heat one room or only heats it by half, then there will be no reduction in payment for the services provided. But at the same moment, the consumer has the right to call a specialist from the service organization to fix the breakdown.

Before the specialist arrives, it is necessary to establish that only in one of the rooms there is a cold radiator or the problem extends to the entire apartment, or maybe to the entire riser or entrance. The collected information will help the plumber quickly navigate the site and fix the breakdown as soon as possible.

What to do

First of all, you should document the fact that there is no heat for a long time. This will be confirmed by an act drawn up in accordance with all the rules.

Such an act must be drawn up in two copies; the document must indicate the reason for the cold in the house when the heating was turned off. The timing of repair work should also be indicated. The act is signed by the tenant of the apartment who initiated the execution of this document, as well as by a representative of the Management Company.

Clogged heating system riser

A clogged heating system riser in an apartment building is determined by the cooling of heating radiators in several apartments. Typically, such radiators can be located vertically one below the other, depending on the configuration of the specific heating system. Usually, with such a breakdown, the upper floors receive enough heat, and the lower floors freeze. This is especially noticeable when there is a strong minus on the street.

The reasons that lead to clogging of the riser are usually laid down at the installation stage. A decrease in the diameter of the riser pipe by 0.25 compared to the design one leads to clogging with oxides and debris after just a few years.

Removing such a clogged system riser usually requires the work of a qualified team of plumbers. Often, such repairs also require the consent of other residents, including apartments that are not directly affected by the emergency.

Inaction of the management company

If calls to the management company through the dispatcher did not provide any information and no result, the residents of the house can make a claim and submit it to the management of the Management Company. A valid claim is both collective and from one owner of an apartment in the building. This document must be submitted in such a way that the submission is recorded by a representative of the Company.

Only 3 days are given to review the paper.

During this time, the management company must eliminate the problem or at least begin the process by notifying the consumer of the actions taken. When, after 3 days, the person filing the claim does not see the result, he can contact the Housing Inspectorate or the Department of Housing and Communal Services:

To contact the Department, you should also fill out an application. It must indicate what actions were taken previously, and attach a copy of the complaint to the Criminal Code.
In cold weather, the Department is obliged to sort out the issue within 24 hours and restore a comfortable temperature in the house or apartment. If the claim is not submitted on the coldest days, the institution is given 20 days to resolve the problem.
The applicant must receive a written response explaining the issue, indicating the time frame for eliminating violations in the operation of the heating system.
If the Department fails to act, you should write a complaint to Rospotrebnadzor.

In case of this problem, you should act consistently, do not immediately contact Rospotrebnadzor, bypassing your management company or the Department of Housing and Communal Services.

Rospotrebnadzor and the prosecutor's office

Since this organization, Rospotrebnadzor, is engaged in protecting consumer rights, citizens have every right to turn to it even if the quality of public services is low. You should also submit an application only after contacting the Management Company:

Along with the application, correspondence with the management company, with the Department, and their responses to the request regarding cold batteries in the apartment or in the apartment building as a whole is submitted. Heating equipment and temperature inspection reports will also be needed.
An application to Rospotrebnadzor or the prosecutor's office should be drawn up correctly, in business language, accurately indicating information about the object, the owner, and the period of lack of heat.

Airing the heating system

The most common cause of cold radiators in houses and apartments is air getting into the heating system circuit. As a result of the presence of minor air bubbles, a bubble is formed during the circulation process that blocks the flow. The provided air vent is not always effective.

If the heating system riser is airy, which is understandable when cooling several radiators, you should contact maintenance and call a plumber.

If one of the batteries becomes airy (when the supply pipes are hot and the radiator or part of it is cold), you can bleed off the accumulated air yourself. Modern heating radiators are usually equipped with a Mayevsky tap. To bleed air, such a tap must be opened slightly until water appears. Videos and printed instructions are available on the Internet.

Causes

Consumers rarely interfere with the operation of the heating system, so most often the lack of a comfortable temperature in the house does not depend on them:

If the house has been in use for a long time, the heating system may have worn out completely or partially. Because of this, from the very beginning of the heating season, breakdowns and leaks occur over and over again, which must be repaired.
Over time, many houses are supplemented with adjustments and extensions for which the heating system was not designed. And because of them, the quality of heat supply work decreases.
The pipeline may be damaged mechanically, for example during excavation work.
Also, a big problem for all apartment buildings is changing the heating system inside the apartments during redevelopment or replacement of equipment. Homeowners can change the location of radiators, add or reduce their number.
It can also be cold in the house due to the wear and tear of the house itself, the appearance of cracks and holes in its walls. The batteries are simply not capable of heating rooms into which cold air from the street enters en masse. An important factor is the thermal protection of the house, thermal insulation of walls and roofs.

Options are possible when the batteries are even placed on the balcony attached to the room. All this becomes a negative and unforeseen change in the pipeline design, calculated by specialists at the stage of building a house.

ATTENTION! Unprofessional intervention in the system quite often leads to the fact that due to the renovation of one apartment, the entire riser of a residential building suffers.

As you can see, cold radiators are not always the fault of the heating supply organization. Therefore, it is important to first find out the reason for the cold in the apartment, then you need to go and complain to the appropriate authority.

If the apartment building is not at all insulated from the cold, the walls have cracks, the Management Company should start insulating the facility, possibly with the help of the residents themselves.

Incorrect connections in the heating system

The correct design and installation of the heating system is the basis for the efficiency of space heating and optimization of heat consumption. A common mistake is incorrect installation of the bypass. It should be noted that installing the tap directly on the bypass is prohibited. With this installation, it is possible to shut off the circulation throughout the entire riser if the valves on the battery and the bypass are closed at the same time. This is especially true in an apartment building and with a single-pipe connection scheme.

The number of sections that make up the heating radiator is too large compared to the design one. If necessary, you can connect the radiator “diagonally” or install a “flow extender” on such a radiator. You can make such a bypass - flow extender yourself or purchase a ready-made one.

With a multi-circuit system, balancing valves should be provided during installation in the shorter arm of the system. With such taps you can even out the temperature balance in different parts of the heating system.

Rules for filing a complaint

When there is poor heating in an apartment, what should you do? There are temperature standards in residential premises that heat suppliers must adhere to.

But this does not mean that you need to call the prosecutor’s office with complaints and claims, the temperature drops a little. There may be an emergency on the line that will be resolved quickly.

If cold batteries are a constant phenomenon, then you should rightfully protect your interests as a consumer. First you should ask your neighbors on the site or entrance. Perhaps the problem is only in the operation of the riser or individual batteries.

In this case, it is enough to call a good, experienced plumber from the management company, who will check for air pockets or other phenomena that interfere with the excellent operation of the heating system . If it’s cold throughout the house, you need to make a complaint according to all the rules:

The first instance is the Management Company or Housing Office that maintains the house.
Then comes the Department of Housing and Communal Services at the local municipality or Housing Inspectorate.
If they do not respond, a statement is filed with Rospotrebnadzor.
And only after the above points of appeal can you go to the prosecutor’s office and the court. A complaint or claim is an important document that must be drawn up in accordance with all the rules of business papers. The accuracy and reliability of the information is important. The authority to which the application is submitted is indicated. Then you need to provide the applicant’s details, leaving contact information for feedback.
Then a detailed description of the problem is given. It is necessary to indicate when the heat supply stopped and what measures were taken in this regard. If the paper is submitted, for example, to Rospotrebnadzor, you need to submit correspondence with the Criminal Code and the Department.
Another important point is the presence of an inspection report that will confirm the lack of heating or low temperature of the air and radiators.
At the end of the letter, you should express your demands and complaints to eliminate the problem and recalculate heating payments. It is necessary to indicate the intention to go to court if there is no response to this letter.
The document is signed and the date of its preparation is set.