Just when the winter cold struck last week and the perceived temperature dropped to minus ten, Bonnie de Jong (60) and her husband in Boxtel no longer had hot water coming from the tap. In the Vinckenrode senior complex they still cannot shower with hot water. “We put pans of water on the induction and heat the water that way. This way we can still take a shower.”
Bonnie and her husband live in a senior living complex in Boxtel. The problem arose three years ago. “The water got cold now and then, but it was manageable,” says Bonnie. But since mid-December there has been no hot water at all: “The water is ice and freezing.” And so the couple heats up water in pans so that they can take a shower and do the dishes, for example.
Annoyance
In their words, not only Bonnie and her husband are left to fend for themselves, almost the entire senior complex is affected. “Nothing is done about it. We belong to Woonstichting JOOST, and they refer us to a mechanic company, which in turn connects us to Ennatuurlijk (ed. the energy supplier). We are sent from pillar to post. We are at our wits’ end and it causes a lot of anger and stress.”
Bad boiler house
The moment Omroep Brabant visits Bonnie, a technician is ‘suddenly’ present. “This is a residential complex with a central boiler house that provides heat,” he says. The boiler house belongs to the Ennatuurlijk company and, according to him, that is where the problem lies.
Hot water is supplied to the apartments from the boiler house. That water should have a temperature of 70 degrees. But according to the technician, that temperature is not reached at Bonnie and her husband’s home, nor at other apartments in the complex.
“At Ennatuurlijk they can see via a computer in the office that it is warm,” the technician continues. But according to him, this is only the case with the first homes where the water passes. While the other apartments have to make do with cold(er) water. “I just went to the upstairs neighbors and they also have lukewarm to cold water,” he says.
Not the only one
The senior complex opposite Vinckenrode also suffered from it. The boiler house has been adjusted there and now everything is good, the mechanic knows. Bonnie and the other residents hope that their problems will also be resolved quickly.
Omroep Brabant has asked both Woonstichting JOOST and Ennatuurlijk for a response. Both parties have not yet responded.