Hot Water Mystery

While I am very happy with my new little apartment I have had a few complaints. The second biggest being the apparent lack of quantities of hot water. (the first being the large insect population) I like hot water. I like it for washing dishes, I like it for washing my hands and I really like it for showering. I quickly discovered that the capacity of the hot water heater in this new place was not quite up to my long, hot, luxurious, water-wasting shower standards. In fact, I had to relearn the art of the 4 minute shower, this being the approximate duration of the hot water's issuance from the shower head before exhausting itself into cold. While not inspiring of great showers, I decided that it could have a positive effect on my water bill and perhaps even my electric bill and figured I'd grin and bear it.

ast week I began to notice that my water wasn't even getting hot. It was only reaching that mild baby milk level of warmth. I attributed this to the decided drop in mercury that occured this past week and figured I just needed to have the heat adjusted on the water tank.

Wednesday I woke up to NO HOT WATER AT ALL!!!!!! I didn't panic. I called my trusty neighbor (who has a beautiful shower with hours of hot water) and was granted the use of her shower facitilies for the morning. On my way to her place I noticed a brand new hot water tank sitting outside the apt. building. I had a hard time containing my excitement and I quickly located the maintenance men and asked them if they were fixing my hot water. Joe (the maintenance guy) told me that no, this was for the apartment below mine, but he wanted to know if I was having problems. I let him know my problems but we both figured that the lack of hot water that morning was due to the work they were doing on the apt. below mine. Needless to say I checked out the water situation as soon as I returned from work in the evening. It came out of the faucet just fine and warm so figured I'd give it one more shower before calling in my own complaint. The next morning I jumped into the shower with mixed emotions. (I was struggling with jealousy of my downstairs neighbors as I envisioned that shiny new hot water heater chugging away in their service and at the same time reminding myself to be thankful for the bit of hot water I did have) I washed my hair and conditioned my hair, then I stood under the hot water to savor the last bit of warmth knowing that at any second it would turn cold, and I stood and stood and stood...and I checked my watch and still the fountain gushing from the wall remained nice and hot! I like to experiment and would have kept myself in the shower till it turned cold just to see how long it would last but I had to get to work at some point. Since Thursday, I have had hot water past the four minute mark and I still have not discovered its depletion time.

So What Happened?!! Did they give me the new tank by mistake? My theory is that somehow my neighbor's and my own hot water are combined. In fact, I suspect that I may be paying for my neighbors hot water bill. The other theory is that while fixing my neighbor's hot water tank, they ajusted something on my own tank. But this would be very out of character for my landlord. Of course they could have fixed it accidentily which would be much more plausible... So although good, it is still a mystery and one into which I must make further inquiries.