Dropped by at yesterday’s The third client needed to connect a drainage system to the sewer. The basement was a mess, full of cobwebs. I was armed to the teeth with an extension cord, a big stationary flashlight, spare parts, and pipes. It was a half-hour job. I finished everything and told the client that all was well and that I had installed the siphon, so there wouldn’t be any smell. Later that evening, he called and said it stank. So I went back to check… Anything can happen; I could have left the siphon’s bottom partially open, which would cause water to spill out and the smell to rise. But no, the siphon was intact, and there were no odors coming from the air conditioning. The shopkeeper, standing three meters away from me, insisted that he could smell something. I asked him where it was coming from, and he pointed to the basement. In front of the shop, there were grates covering the basement windows.
Ahh… Semyon Semyonovich. You installed the air conditioner in the basement, right? You did. Did you direct the air conditioner’s fan through a special giant flexible duct to the basement window below? You did. The air conditioner pulls air from the basement, heats it up, and pushes it outside. And in the basement, there’s sewage, hopefully just 200 years old, though it might be even older. The smell there isn’t exactly pleasant, and it’s not because I connected the drainage to the sewage system, but because you hired such a clever architect who can’t think two steps ahead. In general, the air conditioner might dry out the basement over time, of course. But the smell will probably linger a bit, always.