Heat and hot water

If a heat pipe breaks and a blackout follows, I guess a backup gas burner would suffice. Make sure you have air flowing to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning. I remember one of these burners and they're smokeless, except when you burn your pants on.

As for the shower, boil 1 or 2 liters and add to a bucket of water. Then splash on with a plastic cup. That's what I did during Sihanoukville's water shortage (caused by people spending too much on oversized Lexus cars rather than on extra pipelines or reservoirs).

If all else fails, think about how inuits and eskimos get through it. Or follow a street cat and see where they warm up.

Hot water and heat are centrally supplied in UB and they are rarely interrupted in winter.  Control over your heat and hot water may not be so good.  Many buildings are over-hot in spring and fall.  Hot water may range from tepid to scalding, sometimes in a matter of minutes.

Electric outages seem to be dependent on where you're living in the city - I worked near where you'll be living for my first year in Mongolia and power outages were not very common.  As best I can recall, it was unusual to have more than 1-2 outages a month, and usually for less than an hour or two.  In two years living in UB, I remember only 2 long power outages, one about 6 hours and one about 8 hours.  Irritating but not a big problem. 

I did find it necessary to have candles, flashlights and a small single burner portable gas stove.  We used the gas stove for hot-pot meals as well as power outages just before dinner.

Area near the campus of MUST university is convenient.  For expat shopping, you're near both the Sky department/grocery store and a wide variety of restaurants and other stores, and a cinema.

Winter air quality near MUST University is pretty poor in the winter time.  Think about getting a good HEPA air filter for your apartment.

I didn't feel it necessary to wear an air filtering mask in the winter in that area but a lot of my co-workers did.  If you think the air quality will bother you, consider bringing high quality allergy or particulate masks over with you. 

Car exhaust and coal fired heaters are the big contributors to the problem near where you'll be living.