I can't imagine many things that wake you up faster in the morning than a frigid toilet seat. WOOHAH!
The temperature in our apartment hovered in the low to mid-60's most of the weekend; this morning we woke up to a positively glacial 56. After repeated bashing of the snooze alarm to postpone the inevitable freezing of the feet (and other bodily parts), I finally got up and decided to inspect the furnace downstairs. Mounted to it was this contraption with a little LED, a list of what the LED meant (steady or flashing, red or amber) and a big red button. I pushed the big red button, theorizing that if it exploded and vaporized me, at least I'd die warm. Instead, it roared to life (and made me glad I'd used the aforementioned frigid toilet, or else I might have had a wee accident) and soon after, the radiators in our apartment started, well, radiating. Never have I been so glad I pushed a big red button. Or our cats, who had detected the sudden resuscitation of our heaters, and were perched atop them soon afterwards.
If some small island nation is obliterated within the next couple of hours, however, I promise it wasn't me. Dammit, they shouldn't make big red buttons so big and red if they don't want people to push them.
Our thermostat was registering 55 (despite being pushed up to 70 and then 80) last week, but it seems to have fixed itself. I knew there was something wrong when the 'room temperature' of the water in my water bottle that I had left on my dresser was 'cold.'
we have issues with our furnace's red button as well. for us it usually happens when it rains a lot. it really sucks to get in the shower and then realize that the furnace had shut down. brrr.