Heat! · 5 March 2022
Heat is not something that we should take for granted.
I must admit that living comfortably in my house has caused me to take things for granted. Clean running water to drink and bathe in (not at the same time). A nice bed to sleep in. And heat to bask in. (Yes. I like to end sentences with prepositions. Take that, English language usage police.) But like everything that we take for granted, we realize that we have been taking those things for granted when they go away. Even for just a short time.
If you ever hear strange sounds coming from your furnace, it would be a good idea to have the heating people come out to your house to check things and make sure things are as they should be. Even if they are not as they should be. For those helpful folks can probably keep the furnace working. Or at least give you some options for repairing or replacing it. And if you are hearing those sounds now, you should call those people right away. (Like now.)
If you have not guessed it already, I did not call right away. I heard a sound. A sound of metal on metal. In fact, the sound was so loud that it woke me up one Saturday morning. I got up to find out what it was. I even thought to myself, “Hmm. Maybe a bearing is going out. I should call the heating people.” I should have listened to that voice in my head. But since you are reading this, you have probably guessed that I did not listen. Ah well. Shoulda woulda coulda.
Turns out that I was right. It was a bearing. The thing is, the grinding sound did not get louder as I thought it should have gotten had it been a bearing. Instead, the sound essentially disappeared. Probably not completely, but enough that I thought we could wait to get it serviced until later in the year. Maybe the summer. Turns out I was wrong. Again.
Well, to make a short story a little longer, the furnace failed. Right in the coldest part of the week. Wednesday. Actually, it probably failed the night before, but I noticed that it did not come on that fateful Wednesday morning. (Did I mention that it was the coldest day of that particular week?) I had to call the furnace folks to get somebody to look at it.
I had to call two different heating companies. I called the people who installed the thing in the first place. They could not come out until Friday, two days later. So I ended up calling another company who could come out that day. They are going to do the work.
The interesting thing about that second phone call was that I did not call who I thought I was calling. I ended up calling CM Heating, even though I was actually looking to call somebody else. Turns out that it was a good call. They were able to diagnose the problem. Unfortunately, the problem was that the furnace was dead. They could bring it back to life, but we opted to just replace it. And upgrade it. And upgrade it some more.
I believe we made the right choice on what we are doing to our heating (new fancy heater and heat pump). I am looking forward to getting out heating back. And I am looking forward to getting some cooling in the summer. But truth be told, I am probably most looking forward to taking heat for granted.
© 2022 Michael T. Miyoshi
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