[kypro]

I was told that in Russia nat gas is so cheap that they keep the heating on 24/7 and will often just open windows to regulate temperature. No idea how true this is and whether it just applies to offices / apartment complexes but this is what I was told.

[cyberax]

It's true! Old apartment buildings and offices were designed with district heating in mind.

The heating is provided via hot water radiators that are not at all adjustable, there are no thermostats in individual apartments! So if the weather is not very cold, your apartment can become too hot. While it's still sub-freezing outside.

Newer apartment buildings have adjustable radiators with thermostatic valves, but it's far from common.

[mopsi]

That's true. Proper ventilation with heat exchangers and all that is a very recent thing and not very widespread. Almost the entire housing stock, offices and other buildings were built without modern ventilation. Instead, buildings got windows with small separately openable sections (1/6 of the opening) known as fortochkas [1] for ventilation. They were a standard element of mass-built commieblocks [2] and it was common to overheat buildings so much that ventilation windows were left open all the time even in the winter. In modern times, when energy has a cost, they are often replaced with the latest well-insulated windows and kept shut to save money, which leads to molding issues due to insufficient ventilation.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortochka

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khrushchevka

[heavenlyblue]

My uncle in Moscow used to have his gas cooker on all the time in the kitchen.

[selimthegrim]

District heating maybe