In this type of building there are many joints that must be sealed after the panels are lifted into place. There are no insulation cavities in the side walls of the Zhukovskij buildings so that the total wall insulation value is provided by the 14-inch thick exterior concrete panels. Apartments in regions further north than Moscow were reported to have triple-pane windows. Most of the residents used foam rubber, newspaper, or tape to seal up their windows as much as possible around October 15 each year and unsealed them around April 15. This helped make up for the lack of effective permanent weatherstripping on the windows.
Heating is delivered by a radiator located below each window.
The radiators receive hot water via an extensive distribution system from a central district heating plant. Apartments generally do not have individual controls or metering and furthermore, individual controls and meters cannot be easily retrofit in many buildings because radiators are typically plumbed vertically in series. Heat delivery is controlled by varying the hot water supply temperature with daily temperature at the central plant. The behavior of this type of system requires that it provide excess ventilation in cold weather in order for it to provide adequate ventilation in moderately cool weather. During our typical day at Zhukovskij, three separate blower door teams would each test two or three apartments.