After living in San Francisco for several years, I became a high-rise living convert. The heart of the city within walking distance. Easy commutes. Great views. And much more.

Occasionally, it has its problems though. When something goes haywire in the building – and it affects your individual unit – it can be an extraordinarily frustrating experience. One such gremlin in my building is the air conditioning.

In a gesture of immense stupidity, the thermostats in individual units featuring air conditioning are tied to the thermostat in the building. When something happens in the building – such as a periodic maintenance cycle that appears to happen on Sunday evenings – the thermostat in the unit will be ignored and the temperature will rapidly rise to 80+F/27C. Setting the temperature and adjusting the thermostat is USELESS – the only way to fix it is pull the circuit breaker, allow the whole system to reset, turn it back on, and then reset the thermostat. Fun stuff.

And this wondrous suggestion is from the head of building maintenance. Next time – don’t do it!