I wondered if our neighbors had heaters in their buggies.

I hated seeing the little shiver, so I took a thermos of hot chocolate down to her, and checked to see if there was heating in the buggy

When I tell people that most of my neighbors are Amish, they assume I live in a quiet area, but they are far from right. You wake up to the sound of their rooster crowing in your backyard. My husband has chased their calves out of my rose bushes and vegetable garden, more times than I can count. Last year, we had horse munching on the new apples of the apple tree. I get so angry when this happens that I forget how nice the people are. I have had fresh spate bread delivered to my door at 6 AM, and eggs that were still warm from the hen. If they need help, they come to my husband, and they are always there to lend a hand when we need help. I can’t imagine living anywhere other than where we were. Last year, I saw a young girl and her mother going down the hill in the buggy. She couldn’t have been over three-years-old, but she was helping pick up logs from the road. I saw she was shivering, and I wondered if they had heaters in their buggies. I hated seeing the little shiver, so I took a thermos of hot chocolate down to her, and checked to see if there was heating in the buggy. There was a small space heater on the floor, and it had the inside of the buggy quite warm. Had it not been warm inside, I was going to invite them into my house for a hot cup of tea or chocolate, but I wasn’t sure if they would come in.

ductless multi split

The HVAC technician said it wasn’t luck, but experience.

I was talking to the HVAC technician last week, while he was working on the air conditioning unit.

Mom always allowed me to go outside when the HVAC technician was here.

He arrived to do the inspection and service on the air conditioning unit to make sure it was ready for summer. I enjoyed watching him and talking to him so much that I actually thought I may someday be an HVAC technician. When inspecting the air conditioning unit, he noticed a small crack in one of the fan blades. He told me that if the fan blades weren’t working right, it could cause the fan motor to overheat, which would cause a lot of problems. I thought it was lucky that he had found the crack in the fan blade. He laughed and told me there was no luck about it. He had so much experience working on air conditioning units it stood out like a sore thumb. The man really impressed me with his knowledge of HVAC, which made me even more sure that someday I would be an HVAC technician. I told mom I had decided about my career after graduation. Before I could say anything, she told me I was going to be an HVAC technician. I couldn’t figure out how she knew what I was going to say, but she told me she was my mom and she had heard me make that statement every time the HVAC technician was at the house. I didn’t realize how many times I had told mom I wanted to be an HVAC technician, but it had to be more times than I remembered.

 

air conditioner installation

The constant heat was making me sleepy.

I rarely get sleepy in the middle of the day, but I have been taking a nap early in the afternoon for the last three days.

  • I was sure it was the constant heat that was making me sleepy.

I would get home from work, and it was all I could do to stay awake. I had to lie down or stretch out in my recliner for at least half an hour before I felt like I could do something. I enjoyed getting home early because I still had time to get things done around the house. It had been hot the last week, and I still didn’t have the air conditioning on. I considered turning the AC on, but it was only April. We had plenty of April where it got hot for a short time, and then it went back to the fifties and sixties. I knew the same thing was going to happen this year, but I am older now. I was minding the heat more than I ever had. Not even the ceiling fans were comforting me. I was okay at night when I had the fans on and the windows open, but I couldn’t open the windows during the day. I got home from work, right when the heat was at its highest, and I was tired. I guess I could have turned the air conditioning on in the car, but that is hindsight. I am just going to take my naps, and when it cools off in a couple of days, I’m hoping my body will go back to normal schedules, unless it has already gotten used to those afternoon naps.
gas fireplace

Do you think mom will get mad about the thermostat?

My brothers were playing football in the living room, and I was supposed to be watching them.

  • Instead of being a babysitter, I was being the big sister, talking to my friends and playing games, while ignoring my brothers.

I should have known there was going to be trouble when I heard one of them yell, ‘touchdown’, and then it went quiet. I thought they sat down to watch something on television, or turned on their gaming system, but I didn’t hear loud noises of explosions and gunfire. I walked into the living room, and they were staring at the wall. My littlest brother looked like he was going to cry and asked if I thought mom would get mad about the thermostat. I looked at the wall where the thermostat was once placed, and then I looked at the floor where it now laid. I told them mom was going to be furious. She was going to be upset with them, but mad at me for not doing the job she charged me with. I called the HVAC company and gave them numbers off the thermostat and asked if they had another one. I needed it installed before mom got home. I looked at my bank account to make sure I had enough money to pay for the new thermostat. I knew I had to tell mom what happened, but I hoped she would be proud that I had the thermostat replaced and paid for it. I had her hot tea ready when she got home and told her what happened. She patted my hand, said thank you, and she would pay me back for the thermostat when she got paid.

Heating and air conditioning products

I’m not sure the thermostat can handle these temperature changes.

I don’t know who was having a more difficult time dealing with these up and down temperatures.

  • My thermostat was old, and I was afraid it was going to fail on us, but my wife was going crazy.

She wanted me to get a new thermostat, because she didn’t know if it was winter or summer. I had a thermostat that adjusted to the outside temperature and gave us climate control. If it was humid, the dehumidifier would adjust to keep the humidity out of the house. The thermostat did the same with heat and lack of humidity from the cold. Our thermostat was one of the first climate control smart thermosts to come off the line, and it was getting old. I called the HVAC company and told them I wanted another climate control thermostat, and they sent an HVAC technician to the house. He brought the latest and greatest smart thermostat that gave us perfect climate control, and installed it before he left. He checked the furnace and air conditioning unit to make sure they were working. The best part of his visit was that since we had a maintenance agreement, all we had to pay for was the new thermostat. The temperatures are still mercurial, but it will soon be May. Once May comes along, the temperatures usually even out, and they are trending up for the next couple of months. All I will worry about then is the grumbles of my wife as she complains about the heat and how the air conditioning can’t keep up. She complains about the humidity and then she complains that the grumbles of the thunder kept her awake all night. I can’t wait for fall and winter, and it’s only April.

heating repair

We needed the furnace at night.

Although April brings some warm days to our area, we often need the furnace at night.

  • The sun goes down, and there is a noticeable chill in the air.

I usually pull the blankets up around me and get cocooned for the night, but my wife is the opposite. She sleeps with the blankets wrapped around her waist and her legs and arms uncovered. Sometimes she has backed up against me to get warm, but it doesn’t last long. She gets her back warm and then she scoots to the edge of the bed. She told me once that if she wanted to cuddle up next to the furnace, she would have been born a dog, but she chose me instead. With the onset of warmer temperatures this month, I turned the furnace off. I was sure the heat of the day would sustain us throughout the night. I was going to put a fire in the fireplace to take away the morning chill. My wife thought that was a good idea until it went below freezing one night. She wasn’t just backed up against me, but I was hanging off the bed, and she was wrapped around me to stay warm. I had to get out of bed, turn the furnace on, and then crawl into her side of the bed, if I wanted to get warm. When she woke up in the morning, she asked why I had pushed her off her pillow and blamed me for her stiff neck. I apologized and said I had been up to start the furnace, and I had moved over. It was the only place to lie down.

 

hydronic heater

I didn’t tell you winter was over.

My wife was in a hurry for winter to end and summer to begin.

  • I came home last week, and she had the window air conditioners out of the basement.

There was an air conditioning unit in our bedroom, our daughter’s bedroom, and in her workroom. She was putting the air conditioning unit in the living room when I got home. I asked her what she was doing, and she rolled her eyes while asking me what it looked like. After kissing her cheek, I told her it looked like she was jumping the gun. I wasn’t sure winter had quite given up yet. I never considered putting the air conditioning units in the windows until at least mid-May. She impatiently told me it was eighty degrees outside, and she would not suffocate in her home. It was eight today, but tomorrow it was supposed to be in the forties. We had watched the weather report early this morning, but she must not have been paying attention to the weather. I know we have a goofy weather guy who acts more like a comedian with ADD, on speed, but he is usually right. If you can make it through his antics, you get to see the seven-day forecast at the end of his nonsense. She asked if I was going to help her with the air conditioning, and I said no. I didn’t tell her winter was over, and if she wanted to install the air conditioning unit, it was all on her. The next day she complained there was an icy breeze blowing in around the AC unit.

 

whole home heating

I could hear the heating system turn on last night

Last week it got up to almost 80 degrees, but sometime in the middle of the night, I heard the heater kick on. I didn’t think last night would get that cold, but it did. The night saw a shift in the weather. Rain was falling and the wind was howling. As midnight approached, the temperature outside dropped from seventy to thirty-six, and the house cooled down nicely. Not forcing my husband to turn on the air conditioner was a wise decision. It was pretty chilly when I woke up, so that’s probably a good thing. When I woke up, the thermostat was set to sixty degrees, and there was a fire burning in the fireplace. I got dinner going for him so he could get to work on time. He assured me that today would see a high volume of repair requests because people had been using air conditioning even though the thermostat was set to heat. With the temperature nearly thirty degrees lower than it had been earlier in the week, normalcy had been restored, and people had forgotten to switch back to heating. Many of his clients had him come to their homes and charge extra for resetting their heating system’s thermostat. It’s better than discovering there’s a problem with the heater or thermostat that my amazing friend and I suddenly forget those little things, like switching from heat to AC. Even though I know my husband, the HVAC technician, will charge them as little as possible, it will still be money out of their pockets that they didn’t have to spend.
heating industry

My mother informed me I should be an actress. (feigned a faint without AC)

When my mom told me last month that I should be an actress when I grow up, I didn’t think she was being funny.

I gave her the best fake faint she’d ever seen, but alas, she caught me peeking out from behind my eyelids and knew I was just being dramatic.

My room was hot, and I requested that the air conditioner be activated. She did not give in to my melodrama and instead told me to pull myself together. She didn’t turn on the air conditioning just to make me feel better. She instructed me to turn on the fan and draw the curtains during the afternoon. It would be much more comfortable to sleep with the windows open at night. I had to draw the blinds and shut the windows in the afternoon. It was how mom maintained a comfortable temperature at home in the afternoons. I was also instructed to leave the ceiling fan on. Even though she claimed she didn’t, I knew the temperature in her bedroom and the rest of the house was quite comfortable. I was able to “feel the HVAC ducts,” she said. She had the experience to know what to do, and despite my request, she did not turn on the air conditioning. I muttered angrily as I stomped to my room. For good measure, I slammed the door. That night, without telling her, I opened the window and turned on the fan to see if it would help. As soon as I got out of bed, I lowered the blinds and rolled up the window. When I moved into my cabin at college, the temperature in my room dropped.

cooling equipment

I told Dad I would die of heatstroke without Air Conditioning

My father’s laughter was the loudest I’d ever heard until I told him I’d die of heat exhaustion if we didn’t have air conditioning.

  • He refused to turn on the air conditioning because my amazing friend and I still had a lot of pleasant weather ahead of us.

In the middle of April, the temperature outside hit eighty degrees. He assured me that this April heat wave was not an anomaly and that it would happen again. It was going to be in the sixties again until May, and he refused to deal with the air conditioner on nights when my awesome roommate and I would need the heater. I assumed he was being unreasonable because he didn’t want me to feel at ease. Nobody made him stay in their room until they finished their homework, least of all him. Instead of cooking in a stuffy bedroom, he could spend his time doing something more pleasant. Going to work was the only requirement, and I had no doubt he would perform admirably. I finally told him how I really felt, and his response was an eyebrow raise. I was asked, “Do you know what he does?” In my mind, I always imagined him tending a flower garden. He probed my thoughts on whether the hothouse got its name from the abundance of climate control or whether the temperature had to be kept high to sustain the young plants. Perhaps he was onto something, but I was not about to concede that I saw his point. I was hoping he’d install at least one window air conditioner because I was sure he’d had worse days at the office than the few I was complaining about at college and at home. I’m crossing my fingers that it’s my window.

 

heating device