better or worse than secondhand smoke?

the good news is, i got my ancient a/c sleeve unit working. the genius in me (with some help from a landlord) plugged the damn thing in, after turning my bathwater brown for five minutes whilst cleaning the filter.

the bad news is, i'm not sure exactly what my apartment now smells like, but it's not good. sort of like a combination between dirt and fish. how did my apartmental ancestors before me cope with this smell? did they have the absence of common sense to even turn it on? holing up in my bedroom with my new window unit is sounding like a better and better idea.