Basin and kettle: when will they stop turning off hot water in the summer?

Tariffs without a meter

There is another version of the water shutdown, "informal". Not only the old fund is disconnected from hot water, but also new buildings in which all pipes have just been installed. The problem may lie in the tariffs. Two weeks are not included in the tariff for hot water cubes, which is why there is a shutdown.

In 2011, the director of the Omsk branch of TGK-11 Viktor Gaak let slip: “... in general, there are networks that we do not repair every year. We can turn them off for a week or two days. And we can not turn off at all. But the tariff without a meter provides that the water should be turned off for two weeks. And if everywhere were installed individual metering devices, then representatives of some <UK> or <HOA> could contact us with a request not to turn off the hot water without the need.

Useful information for the consumer

The consumer needs to know:

1. Public utilities have the right to turn off hot water for no more than 8 hours a month, and for 4 hours a day.
2. Terms of planned preventive shutdown according to the law do not exceed 14 days.
3. Management companies or homeowners associations, on behalf of water and heat supply organizations, are obliged to notify residents about the upcoming repairs 10 days in advance.
4. Hot water temperature standards should be in the range of 60-75 ° C, depending on the time of day (at night, a decrease in temperature is allowed, since there is no active use).

If utilities do not comply with the mandatory conditions for the provision of hot water, you can safely defend your violated consumer rights.

How urban water supply systems are arranged

The water supply system is a complex technical complex for the selection, purification, storage of water and its supply to consumers. Water sources are rivers, lakes, underground wells and wells. To get into apartments, water overcomes many kilometers through pipes.

The water network includes:

• main system (large-diameter pipes provide water transportation to urban microdistricts);
• distribution network (pipes of smaller diameter direct the flow to specific buildings).

However, after the passage of the heating season, a check of the condition of the pipes is required. To the question “Why do they turn off hot water in summer?” public utilities respond: “In order to make regular
maintenance or overhaul of the system.

Heat loss on the way to the house networks is inevitable, therefore, water from a thermal station or boiler room must exit under high pressure with a temperature of at least 75 ° C. If the temperature of the water outlet is below normal, slightly warm water will flow from the taps in the apartments. All this affects the condition of the pipeline, especially in the winter months.

What preventive work is needed in the summer

All homeowners from time to time make repairs in their houses and apartments. Any hostess takes care of kitchen and household appliances. Each responsible driver annually conducts a complete maintenance and diagnostics of his beloved car. Even the table will fall apart if a couple of screws are not tightened in time. Everyone understands this without exception.

The hot water system also needs periodic inspection and repair. This is also a kind of mechanism, only multi-component and more technologically advanced. However, it is worth depriving a person of a certain type of comfort, and from all sides you can hear: “Why are they turning off hot water again?”.

Preventive maintenance of heating networks, which are also hot water supply networks, includes:

• replacement of some components (for example, valves);
• repair of individual segments of the pipeline;
• renewal of insulating layers and protective elements of the network.

At the same time, employees of boiler houses and thermal enterprises carry out maintenance of station equipment, wash heat exchangers, and check the condition of metering devices.

The central heat and water supply of apartment buildings rapidly entered our life under socialism. However, the conditions under which the systems were operated were not taken into account. The designers did not quite correctly calculate the parameters of the water and the pipeline itself. The pipes were not made from the metal that was listed in the engineering calculations. Water actively destroyed the pipes, rusty deposits appeared on their walls over time. The very principle of laying heating systems allowed for very large heat losses. In this regard, water supply systems annually require repair and reconstruction.

Sharp temperature changes, when there is boiling water inside the pipe, and 25-degree frost outside, in combination with high pressure, after a certain time, destroy the pipeline material, inevitably leading to an accident. Therefore, all the summer work of public utilities is aimed at preparing networks for the next heating season. Any accident in winter is also dangerous because water flows wash away streets, squares and embankments, turning them into a trap for pedestrians and drivers.

Periods of preventive shutdown

Why is hot water turned off for exactly two weeks? In the central and northern regions of the country, several weeks without water cause certain inconveniences. The population of southern cities also suffers from the lack of this kind of comfort. The Sanitary and Epidemiological Rules and Norms (SANPIN) set the duration of turning off hot water for prevention no more than 14 days.Decrees of the Government of the Russian Federation also define such terms for the implementation of the required amount of preventive work.

If water is not supplied after the due date, then you can complain to the authorities:

• local self-government (administration of the district, district, city);
• housing supervision (housing inspection);
• prosecutors.

A collective complaint signed by the majority of the residents of an apartment building will have a greater impact on those responsible than a single consumer appeal. Responsibility for the untimely provision of services lies with to the management company or HOA.

It will not be possible to appeal against the actions of public utilities on the planned shutdown of hot water supply to the court if the shutdown period was no more than 14 days. Judicial practice of district and city courts shows that the deadline for turning off hot water supply established by SANPIN is legal.

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation supports this position.

It is possible to solve shutdown problems

Public utilities can block access to the water supply service based on the decision of local authorities to carry out scheduled repairs. Planned preventive maintenance is carried out strictly in the summer. Management companies should not charge for hot water during the shutdown period.

Engineers, utilities, legislators are trying to find ways to solve the problem titled "why the hot water is turned off again."

There are several ways to reduce the time of turning off the water to 1-2 days:

1. It is necessary to completely replace all old metal pipes with modern plastic ones that are not subject to corrosion, their service life is longer.In addition, such pipes are more flexible, therefore, they behave better during installation.
2. Changing the principle of building heat supply systems. This implies the rejection of a centralized system. Some developers are already implementing the idea of ​​decentralization by installing a backup heat source in the basement or on the roof.
3. Refusal to receive hot water together with heat supply. It is proposed to heat water in a boiler using gas or electricity. The boiler can be used permanently or during periods of DHW interruption. However, the cost of installing such equipment for one house is 3-5 million rubles.

Experience of European countries

The centralized water supply system is used only in the post-Soviet countries. European countries buy gas at a fairly high price, and the issue of providing residents with hot water is solved differently than in Russia:

• a mini-boiler room is installed in each apartment building;
• in small private houses, boilers or gas boilers are fitted;
• use alternative energy sources for water heating and heat supply. For example, wind turbines are widespread in Holland.

In Finland, central gas and individual electric heating is practiced. Only in Denmark, unlike its neighbors, central water supply has been implemented. Of course, utility accidents happen not only in our country. But in the utilities sector, they don't have as many bosses, and besides, the rapid elimination of the consequences of the accident affects the pay of plumbers and electricians.

Two in one: swimming pools, gyms, fitness centers

In any decent sports club there are showers so that visitors after grueling workouts can clean themselves up.In sports clubs with a pool, there are always showers - this is the standard norm: you need to wash in them before visiting, so as not to pollute the water inside the hydraulic structure. After swimming, it is not necessary to wash, but it is desirable - the water in the pools comes with the addition of bleach, and you should not leave traces of it on the skin. If you have been planning to go in for sports for a long time, but it still didn’t work out, purchasing a subscription will be the best solution: you can wash yourself, pump up your muscles, and strengthen your health.

But there are disadvantages:

• Showers and locker rooms in sports clubs, as a rule, meet all the canons of catholicity. You will not find any individual cabins. At best, small partitions separating the shower heads, without a hint of a door. But even they may not be. You will have to take off your clothes and wash for all to see.

• If you do not gravitate towards sports, buying a subscription just for the sake of washing will be expensive.

What is the responsibility of the resource supplying organization?

What to do if hot water was not given at the set time after maintenance work? First you need to make sure that there was no accident on the heating main. If this fact is not confirmed, and unscrupulous public utilities do not give explanations for what is happening, then consumers can complain about a violation of the law to one of the following bodies:

• local authorities;
• Rospotrebnadzor;
• housing inspection;
• to the prosecutor's office.

The application is drawn up in any form, it contains the following items:

• the name of the organization to which the application is submitted;
• Full name of the applicant, address of the problem house;
• state the essence of your claims;
• make demands, preferably with reference to the law;
• if possible, attach supporting papers (announcement of a planned shutdown, contacting a resource supply organization about a violation of the timing of water supply after preventive maintenance).

It is more efficient to file a collective complaint, state bodies will respond to the appeal faster. If violations are detected, the Management Company that has violated the deadlines for supplying hot water supply will have to pay penalties.
Download a sample complaint about the lack of hot water

In addition, consumers may demand recalculation of utility bills, naturally downwards. This can be done in the following cases:

• for each hour of delay, the company must reduce the fee by 0.15% for the entire period of time when hot water was not available;
• for each hour, the calculated amount is reduced by 0.1% if the temperature of hot water is 3 ° C above or below the limit. In cases where hot water is lower than the approved standard by 4 ° C and lower, then here the calculation of the consumed resource takes place at the rate of cold water supply. Regardless of how long this period of time lasts.

If the water regularly does not meet the established standards, and failures in the supply of hot water without good reason are recorded, then consumers can complain to the prosecutor's office with a complaint about a violation of the law. Employees of the institution will conduct an audit, if the facts specified in the application are confirmed, the management company faces a fine of 5-10 thousand rubles.

If it is established that interruptions in hot water are caused by emergencies, then the inspection and regulatory authorities will take the side of the public utility. After all, its employees acted strictly according to the law and took measures to troubleshoot.In this case, citizens will be denied recalculation of the services received.

Citizens should not only know their rights, but also defend them in accordance with the law. For violation of the deadlines for supply, water quality, temperature regime, resource-supplying organizations are threatened with penalties and financial losses in the form of a reduction in fees for services that were not provided. We also suggest that you familiarize yourself with the previous article on a similar topic: turning off cold water by law.

The nuances of turning off water with and without warning

Having considered how long hot water can be turned off according to the law, it is worth mentioning that there are nuances in this matter. For example, in winter, no management company has the right to carry out repair work, unless the situation requires it. Most often, such measures are associated with an emergency. According to the law, during an emergency, you can turn off the water supply for a maximum of 2 days, but no more.

There are also specific deadlines for sending a notice of planned termination and liability of persons. If the housing office arbitrarily turned off the hot water supply, then a person can complain not only to Rospotrebnadzor, but even write to the prosecutor's office.

The state always stands on the protection of the consumer and there are certain rules prescribed in the legislation, which are required to comply not only with officials, but also with citizens.

Deadlines for sending notices of water cuts

Suspension of water supply according to the plan must be accompanied by a warning to all residents. This is required by paragraph No. 49 of the rules for the provision of housing and communal services. Notification of citizens is carried out ten days before the start of repair or maintenance work.

Responsibility for violation of the rules of procedure

The main points for which responsibility is imposed:

1. Poor water quality or intermittent supply.
2. Insufficient water supply.
3. Damage caused to residents or their property after the shutdown.
4. Unauthorized network connection.
5. Violation of the contract for the supply of a resource or causing moral harm.

Why turn off

Alas, but prevention and testing are among the concepts of necessary evil. On the Internet, photos of pipes are regularly posted, through which houses receive the coveted boiling water. They are scary to look at! Remember teapots. We constantly clean them, but soft water is poured in from a cold tap, and everything that flows from a hot tap refers to technical water with a high salt content. They form a thick layer of deposits inside the pipes.

The heating network is not a perpetual motion machine, requiring replacement. Streams of water flow through it under enormous pressure, passing through many bends and joints. The most intensive load falls on the winter, then the risk of accidents increases. Therefore, public utilities conduct tests in the summer for prevention.

Wear and tear increases every year, but there is good news: we are promised that soon the preparation of pipes will be carried out with the redistribution of the load between sections, allowing at least to reduce the time by half. Is it really all that complicated?

Why hot water is turned off in Russia, but not in Europe

Our citizens who have visited European countries return with a slight bewilderment in their eyes: there is no tradition there every summer to wash under an ice shower, boil basins on the tiles and go to visit friends in order to wash. What's the secret?

In the United States, neighborhoods are heated by electric convectors, while apartment buildings in Western Europe have boilers. In warm European countries in the south, houses are not equipped with a heating system at all! For example, Italians in winter include heating air conditioners, but it's cold for them - this is when it's +15 degrees outside! It turns out that Europeans receive only cold water into the house, and it has little effect on the condition of the pipes.

Our heating networks have been preserved since the times of the USSR, and their length has become a high-risk area. In addition, Russia has severe winters that will not allow using only one heater. The experience of warm countries will definitely not help, but is there another way out?

Two weeks with basins! Why so long?

How long will the water be turned off in your apartment, depends onwhether the heating system was successfully tested.

- 30% of pipe sections do not pass the test the first time, - they say in Minsk Heating Systems.

They remind here: earlier, 21 days were allotted for prevention, now work on average does not exceed 15 days, somewhere they can do it in seven.

How exactly are pipes tested? First, the water in them is cooled to a safe temperature. Then the nets are subjected to pressure, which 25% higher than working This test lasts ten minutes. In this case, the water leakage should be “within normal limits”.

“If everything went well, then the network passed the test. Then we return normal pressure and the workers bypass the heating main,” says Alexander Dragun. - If the pipes did not pass the tests and damage appeared, then they must be repaired. And thousands of kilometers of pipelines in the city lie, among other things, in the most inconvenient places: for example, under the roadway, where buses and trolleybuses go from above.Sometimes, in order to repair the damage, it is necessary to change the schemes of public transport routes. Sometimes you can work only on weekends - while we wait for them, we do something else. So it turns out that one network is tested for seven days, the other for 14.

Legislation of the Russian Federation on the period for suspending the supply of hot water supply

Utilities can turn off hot water by law, but no more than 8 hours per month. There is also a time limit. The supply of hot water or cold water is stopped in the aggregate for no more than 4 hours a day.

There are amendments and reservations in this regard, which are prescribed by law in regulations. Moreover, it all depends on the season: winter or summer. During the hot period, preventive work is carried out on the water supply, pipes are replaced. An increase in the duration of the blackout is allowed.

The legislation provides for exceptions to the rules:

1. Capital repairs. Work is being carried out according to plan, residents are required to notify in advance.
2. Protracted measures during an emergency, such as a burst pipe.
3. Prevention is carried out only in summer, but the reservation concerns hot water supply. Utilities are required to meet within 14 days.

It is allowed to file a claim with Rospotrebnadzor. However, an application for recalculating payment should be written to the housing office, on the balance sheet of which there is a private house or MKD.

What Happens During Prophylaxis

Whatever scheme is used in each particular house, in any case it involves heating cold water. And for this, the boiler in the boiler room must work.And the supply of hot water is temporarily stopped in the summer in order to check if everything is in order with the boiler - so that it does not suddenly break down in the winter. Pipes and heating mains also need preventive checks. According to the Ministry of Construction at the beginning of 2019, a third of all heating systems in the country are completely worn out.

During prevention, the so-called "pressure" occurs. Water is supplied to the pipe under increased pressure and see if there are any “losses”. That is, does all the liquid get from point A to point B. If not all, the damaged area is being repaired. Boilers, in turn, are cleaned of scale. If this is not done, they will heat up more where there is more scale. And "local overheating" will sooner or later lead to a breakdown.

water

News/Igor Zarembo

Cold water flows from the faucet instead of hot because the pipe can warp if left empty for 14 days. In particular, it will be pressurized by a pipe through which cold water flows all year round. By the way, they do not turn off cold water because it is not connected with heating, and the wear of cold water supply lines is much lower than that of hot water.

Ideally, for the time when hot water is turned off, the utility companies recalculate the tariff, but just in case, if meters are installed in the apartment, it is better to turn off the hot water riser for the entire time of the shutdown. Otherwise for cold water, which pours from a tap open out of habit, can be billed the same as for a hot one.

What Happens During Prophylaxis

Water is heated in the boiler room, then boiling water goes through pipes to each house. The boiler also needs to be checked, otherwise there is a risk of it breaking down in the cold, so they stop it and carry out a routine inspection and descaling.Heating mains undergo severe tests by pressure testing. Water is supplied under high pressure, and experts observe whether the entire flow has passed the established path, if not, the site is subject to repair.

Pipes in disconnected areas are never left empty, so cold water starts to flow from a hot faucet, otherwise deformation will occur. Therefore, if there are metering devices in the apartment, then the best solution is to turn off the hot water riser, otherwise we will end up with a bill, as if we had no tests, and we calmly enjoyed the benefits of civilization in the form of a warm bath.

Is there really no other way, and every summer we will suffer with basins?

We heat our own water

If heating basins, ladles, pots and buckets of water is categorically unacceptable for you (although this method of washing is in the lead compared to the rest), there are other solutions to the issue.

Heating water in pans is not a good idea

With water heater

The advantage of purchasing a water heater is obvious - hot water at any time. But there are also disadvantages that differ depending on the type of water heater:

• Storage water heaters heat well and maintain the desired water temperature, but they take up a lot of space and do not fit into the interior in the best way. In a small apartment, it is not always possible to install a boiler with a volume of 50–80 liters.
• The instantaneous water heater is easy to install and takes up much less space. But the heating temperature depends on the pressure of the water: the larger it is, the less time the water has to warm up and may turn out to be barely warm, instead of hot.

Boiler

Using a boiler to heat water today can already be called an old-fashioned way. Water takes a long time to heat up.For example, using a bucket boiler, it will take at least an hour to heat a standard bath. But the process can be accelerated by using multiple devices.

Three boilers will heat the water in the bath in 20 minutes

Washing machine to help

Hot water use from a washing machine for bathing - a non-standard solution. However, it is comfortable to use this method only if the washing machine is located directly next to the bath.

What we do:

1. We find the place where the drain hose of the washing machine is connected to the sewer system. And turn it off (pull it out of the connector).

2. We shift the now free end of the hose to the bottom of the tub. Don't forget to plug the drain.
3. We start the washing machine without powder and dirty things.
4. We are waiting for the water to heat up.
5. And we first press the button for an emergency stop of the process, and then the forced drain. Everything. Water is poured into the bath.

95% of people will never make it

If you don't You can understand why our country, which has been launching spaceships for more than half a century, has not yet learned how not to turn off hot water in the summer, you can effectively express your protest. And at the same time wash and, perhaps, overcome social fear.

What we do:

1. We put on a swimsuit under ordinary clothes (changing rooms will not be provided).
2. We take soap, a washcloth, a towel.
3. And we go ... to the city fountain.
4. There, under the astonished glances of the slowly strolling public, we take off our outer clothing, climb over the parapet of the fountain and joyfully plunge into the water. Then, with self-respect, without removing the swimsuit, I wash the exposed areas of the body.

The method has one significant drawback: the water in the fountains is not specially heated for bathing.But if the day is hot, the water circulating in a closed system will be much warmer than tap water.

Contrary to popular belief, you should not be afraid of legal punishment for bathing in a fountain. In the Code on administrative offenses you will not find the article "Bathing in fountains". This means that there is no accountability.

Video: swimming in the fountain

Now you know where you can wash after the hot water is turned off. So, you can adequately survive this difficult period.