HVAC Mongolian style, without the VAC

Heat, as in from a furnace, is centrally controlled. There are no thermostats in any of the buildings to set your own temperature choices. The heat is turned on and off on pre-determined dates, regardless of what the actual weather is outside. Heated pipes run through the sewers, going to each building from the central plant that supplies the whole city. This is a holdover from Soviet days, when you received your utilities with your citizenship. It is rumored that homeless kids live in the sewers because it's warm down there. Steam vents rise from the earth here and there around town and the dogs congregate on top of them.