As a child growing up in an almost perpetually warm climate, I relished the arrival of the winter months.
Winter was the only time of year when we could use the fireplace in our home, put on our sweaters and wool socks, and enjoy hot cocoa; even in fall, these activities would have made us sweat in the heat! In my childhood home, in the rare event that we needed to use our home’s heating system, it was always dependable.
My parents had the HVAC system serviced yearly, even though we would have survived without heating for one night if the system malfunctioned. Using the heating system in my childhood home gave me the “warm and fuzzies,” and throughout the rest of the year, I waited impatiently for winter to come. However, when I moved to an area with a colder climate, I had no idea how dependent I was going to be on my HVAC system, especially my furnace. In my childhood home, the heater was—literally—a fair weather friend, but in my new home, we were codependent. Instead of running my heater a few nights per year, and calling an HVAC technician out of an overabundance of caution, I was running my heater almost every day for five months, and calling a local HVAC provider out of absolute necessity. After all, I don’t know what I would have done if my heater had broken in my new town! I still love the winter months; but the comforts of home on those cold nights wouldn’t be complete without an effective heating system!