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I went to school in Northern Wisconsin, and we had a bunch of people from the Caribbean living in my dorm freshman year. There was one thermostat that controlled steam delivery for each floor of the building, and then the radiators in each room did their own thing.

The people from the Caribbean would turn the heat up to 80 degrees all of the time. It got to the point where the thermostats were pulled off the wall in the middle of the night by to keep them from being turned up.

I think probably 3/4 of the building had their windows open all winter, even when it was -20 below outside, just to keep the temp livable. The thing is that it doesn't do much with steam heat, since those radiators can pump out more heat than you can possibly imagine.

The physical plant ended up putting the thermostat within a metal box that was grouted to the wall.

I can understand though. The first time it hits 40 degrees after the summer, I'm freezing, but if it hits 40 in January I'm walking around with shorts on. It was still kind of funny to listen to them describe what being really cold is like: "I'm on fire! Why do I feel like I'm on fire from being cold!"

I'm sure I sound equally hilarious when I'm somewhere hot though.



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