I was on my second cold apple cider drink and bracing myself for a second burger.
We were a group of friends enjoying a summer afternoon on the deck of one of our friend’s houses. One of them commented on a new wireless thermostat that he had installed, and that is when the discussion about furnace/heater installations started. Everyone had something to say about various heat and AC products that they had come across or experienced. Most of us knew a lot about electric heaters since the bulk of us had an electric heating system. Only one of us had a gas boiler, which we all agreed heated a house a lot faster than the electric ones, although the energy efficiency was less compared to the latter. We also discussed the upfront cost of installing some HVAC systems, and the geo heat pump topped the list as the most expensive. When I mentioned heater maintenance, Lucia admitted that she only called the HVAC tech for heating repair. In her defense, she had only been living alone for less than two years after she left a toxic relationship. Her house had heated floors. Despite having a chunk of money from the divorce settlement, she opted for a small house. She enjoyed her newfound freedom because she had been alienated from all her friends and almost all her family. When she got married, she was very young, and the man was older than her and let her do even the simplest tasks such as changing a furnace filter because he claimed she was not smart enough to get anything done correctly. Most of us had a scheduled annual HVAC service plan with our preferred heating dealership.