The indoor temperature has a significant impact on the living comfort and on the building’s energy consumption and –costs. Correct indoor temperature improves the living comfort and the indoor air quality, reduces symptoms of sickness, reduces the harmful emissions of building materials and reduces the feeling of dry air during the winter season.
Most people enjoy the room temperature of 20-22 degrees Celsius and 18-21 degrees in the bedroom. This is also a healthy and energy-sufficient indoor temperature.
When does DAS turn on the heating?
Notes of draft and cold are the most common sort of feedback concerning the indoor air as the temperature outside falls in the autumn time. DAS buildings are heated with district heating and the heating is adjusted automatically with thermostats according to the temperature outdoors. This means that the heating is not separately turned off in the beginning of the summer and turned back on as autumn draws nearer.
The so called heating season starts when the average temperature outside drops below +15 ºC …+17 ºC. The indoor temperature in DAS apartments is set between +19 ºC …+21 ºC. In the beginning of the heating season the indoor temperature is often considered cool even though it is in accordance of the recommended temperatures. This is caused by the relatively high humidity of the air outdoors this time a year. So, it takes some time before the structures of the buildings are fully warmed and the relative humidity outdoors has decreased.
What if the temperature in my apartment is different from the one mentioned above?
If your room temperature varies from the set temperature mentioned above, check the DAS thermometer in your apartment and inform this temperature when making the Note of Fault. If the radiator feels cool it does not mean that it wouldn’t be working. Turn the thermostat higher. You can also vent out the excess air from the radiators with the special key which can be collected from our office. The key must be turned in the radiator valve only for a bit, no water must come out. The point of the venting is to take the possible excess air out the radiator so that water can circulate.
Please also remember that the radiators should not be blocked, for example by a sofa or bed, so that the air can circulate in the apartment. Also, one should not keep a computer “breathing out” warm air close to the radiator’s thermostat because this may disrupt the thermostat’s functioning. The thermostat’s functioning can also be disrupted by heating the apartment up with an oven or by using an extra radiator. Using extra radiators is therefore forbidden in DAS apartments (the terms of tenancy agreement, point 9) so that they do not cause disturbances in the buildings heating system.
How does the ventilation work?
DAS buildings have mechanical ventilation. The roof fans suck air from the kitchens, the WC and the bathroom. This way the air will circulate in other spaces as well. The air from the bedrooms will circulate to the shared spaces through the soundproof valves above the room doors.
Do not block the valves! The roof fans and the exhaust air valves have been adjusted so that the whole ventilation in the building is in balance. Blocking the valves or adjusting them by oneself disrupts this balance and the ventilation in the whole building changes. This basically means that, for example, if half of the people living in the building block/shut the valves above the windows, the apartments in which the valves are not blocked take in twice the amount of replacing air from the outdoors because some of the valves have been shut and this causes a stronger sensation of draft in the apartment.
Cleaning the exhaust air valves in the cooker hood and in the bathroom (usually in the ceiling) regularly is the responsibility of the tenants. The simple way to clean the valves is to wipe them with a clean, damp cloth. The adjustments of the valves mustn’t be changed.
If the air indoors feels stale and/or the windows fog, it’s useful to clean the exhaust air valves first. Check if the supply air valves are open and take out the possible self-installed extra insulation pieces, such as tapes from the top frames of the windows. Test if a piece of paper sticks on the vent by the suction. If it doesn’t, make a note of fault by logging into the DAS tenant pages.