Actually, come to think of it (re: house heating), my friend was genius in his apartment design. He installed these water pipes in each room, and I was like “wtf do you need water pipes in your living room and bedroom?” — he installed these radiators which I guess are common-installation in northern/northeast/tibetan areas for winter heating.. they fill with piping hot water and maintain the heat well, and the water of course is heated from a little gas as per shower/etc. Winter is warm there. 😀
Insulation here is shit. The windows advertised as “multi-pane” or double-pane aren’t really like the ones you’d expect back home, and since most everything is cement rather than wood/insulation/drywall the heat escapes quite quickly. I don’t know whether this is true or not but I presume wood/insulation/drywall models don’t work well here due to humidity rotting the wood or whatever, maybe it’s just a cost thing.