> >> NZ has centralized hot water?
> >
> > Yes. We're all issued with insulated buckets and ration cards
> 
> Most Soviet-era apartment buildings still rely on it, and it sucks. Some 
> bureaucrat controls when to turn your heat on, and when to turn it off --
> so it's either too hot, or too cold

Still, it's better than the old days when you had to wait for the Hot Water
Cart to come around so you could do the washing up or go after some
stubborn understains

> I still can't figure out why they did it this way. Perhaps, because the hot 
> water is basically free? AFAIK, it came from the coal-fired power plants, 
> which would otherwise waste the excess heat in a cooling tower.

I don't think any hot water like that is used domestically in New Zealand.
ISTR that a salmon farm takes hot waste water though, which helps cool
it further before it hits the (Waikato ?) river

Some geothermal areas of New Zealand, like Rotorua, have hot bores.
You're not supposed to but people do tap into steaming ground water.
I think the suits put a stop to it when they can, especially if the culprit is
a motel or similar, because it degrades the pressure in the area, which
is a popular tourist destination. It'd be like tapping Old Faithful

-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist