Cold flats at Bjølsen

– It is freezing. When there are -10 degrees outside, there are about 16 degrees inside, and on top of that comes the draft. Everyone I know who is living there have bought their own heater, student Linn Frikke says, who has been living in Bjølsen Student Village for two and a half years.

After a winter of discontent, she decided to take action and sent a letter to the Foundation for Student Life in Oslo (SiO), in which she asked what was up with the draft from windows and ventilation systems. Why has nothing been done about this, and why do residents need to buy heaters in order to survive the winter with a reasonable temperature. This is the answer she got:

»*Complaints from students this winter has led to SiO hiring a personal advisor *, who is supposed to assess what actions are to be undertaken in order to increase efficiency and exploitation of the water-generated heat. Air that is chilled against cold window surfaces sinks towards the floor. The speed that the chilled air can achieve is 4 seconds per meter, which corresponds with a breeze in weather terms (…) *That somebody will purchase a heater will occur *.Some of our residents prefer a warmer temperature inside than we can offer .«

Disappointed

– I am disappointed when they are hiring advisors rather than solving the problem. Had they taken us seriously, they could have bought heaters until the problem was solved. I get the feeling that SiO is only in it for the money, Frikke says, who has been informed by reliable sources that the low cost ventilation system might be to blame for the cold shivers.

Velferdstinget (responsible for student welfare) is now set to discuss this matter with SiO.

– In general, heating is included in SiO Housing, and obviously you have to be able to live there, leader of Velferdstinget Øyvind Gjengaar says.

With utmost regret

Director of SiO Housing, Tom Olstad, agrees that students should be kept from freezing in SiO`s flats. He can inform that there have been around ten enquiries over the past few months relating to this problem, and that they have hired a construction company to have a look at and possibly repair the heating system. Olstad denies that the ventilation system is cheap, but he simultaneously denies that students should have to buy heaters in order to survive the winter. He records with utmost regret that some students have been affected by the cold.

– We can guarantee that the problem is fixed as soon as we can locate what is causing it, Olstad says.