[tsimionescu]

There were periods when electricity was rationed, usually with rolling blackouts. I've also never heard of a ban on refrigerators at any particular time of year, nor a ban on vacuum cleaners. Problems with hot water were common, but I've also not heard of any particular schedule. Food scarcity was a much bigger problem for that period though, especially in major cities (people would queue for hours for a chance at meat or eggs, for example).

[gls2ro]

Well, there is no need to put a ban on refrigerators or vacuum cleaners if you could not safely assume that there will be electricity in general.

Also for other people reading this, please note that all stores in most of the country (with exception of capital city and a couple others) were controlled by the state. Leaving the country was forbidden in general.

So if they wanted people not to use refrigerators on large scale or vacuum cleaners they could just decide to not sell them. It was that simple to restrict something like electronics.

Just add more: again in most of the country there were very few cars running as there was a limited supply of petrol/gas for cars. You could have a fixed amount of gas.

They even decided at one point that on Sunday to restrict circulation of cars the following way: one Sunday cars that have an odd number are allowed, the other Sunday cars that have an even number were allowed.

[tsimionescu]

While the state could have prevented people from using refrigerators or vacuum cleaners in various ways (as you say, banning or limiting sales, but also making it illegal and relying on the near-ubiquitous network of infromants to tell on neighbours who vacuumed or used too much electricity), the point is that they didn't. Refrigerators were a common household item in Romanian cities at least, and so were vacuum cleaners. They were produced by Romanian factories and sold very much legally. While electrical blackouts were a problem, they were not prolonged enough to prevent the usefullness of a refrigerator (they commonly happened during the night, and a closed refrigerator can typically isolate well enough to preserve its temperature for 6-8h).

[soco]

Yes, and you also had to register to the waiting list to be able to buy one (refrigerator, TV, car...). Or you needed to know somebody who knew somebody who was able to get one for you faster, for an appropriate material reward.

[tsimionescu]

Agreed, "greasing the wheels" was a huge part of life in communist Romania...

[digikazi]

The hot water was "scheduled" - usually twice a day. I don't remember that well as I was quite young at the time, but I think I was meant to be on for a couple of hours in the morning and another couple of hours in the evening. In reality however, the hot water was never more than lukewarm at best and the schedule itself was very flexible: I remember whole weeks without hot water.

[soco]

Brushing teeth with a cup of water heated over the gas stove. Good memories.

[digikazi]

...having a bath with water warmed on the stove in huge pans. Equally good memories :)

[saiya-jin]

This was same in Czechoslovakia, I recall my parents standing queue in freezing cold during winter for 2-3 hours so that their sick son could have some mandarines or lemon juice in the tea.

The beauty of communist central planning, nothing really worked unless you were in communist party.