Avi K – can you explain what you mean about central heating not controlled by individual residents? Don’t newer buildings use either central or split units to heat and cool, which run on electricity, each apartment having their own unit(s)? The really old buildings have furnaces for the whole building with radiators in each apartment, and the tenants had to decide together when to heat- but those ran on oil. then the more modern buildings started putting in mini furnaces (Yunkers) into each apartment, also oil or gas based. But now I think people realize that electricity is the cheapest option, and they use the “mazgan” to both heat and cool.
which reminds me of a “cool” story told about Rav Shach (I think). Someone offered to buy him an A/C for his house, but he turned down the offer because he would not have been able to run it on the generator on shabbos, and he did not want to be more comfortable during the week than on shabbos.
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