Paid for vacation extras with HVAC savings this summer

Much like the way I handle things inside the zone controlled HVAC of the office, I like to find consensus in finding solutions.

I’m a firm believer that having as many stakeholders involved in the outcome makes the results all the better.

And it was this sort of strategy that I applied to my family when it came to the HVAC cooling in our home. We live in a region where the heat is the big deal. For sure, air conditioning is a must have around here and going without it would be crazy. At the same time, I got awfully put out with the way the HVAC equipment was being used and the resulting HVAC costs. But talking, explaining and even pleading just hadn’t gotten me anywhere when it came to a consistent thermostat setting in our home. So I decided to involve all the stakeholders in an effort to really solve the high costs of HVAC cooling we’d been experiencing. I had to make saving worth everyone’s while. The first step there was giving everyone a goal that was common and immediate. Every year when we go on vacation, I’m no machine when it comes to all the stuff my kids and wife want to buy. So this year, I offered the family a deal. For all the money we saved on HVAC cooling, we’d apply to our family vacation at the end of summer. And voila, the thermostat stayed right where it was supposed to be. All I had to do was program the thermostat at the beginning of summer and it was left alone. True to my word, I kept a running tally of the savings all summer and we blew it out on summer vacation this year.

Smart thermostat

Got a smart thermostat the hard way

With my husband, I have to be really persistent when it comes to getting stuff that we need. He’s the one who is always worried about spending money. And I’m more like what’s the use of having money if you don’t use it. So the fact that it took almost a decade to get a smart thermostat is a great example of how resistant he can be. When the smart thermostat came out, I was intrigued. I liked the idea of HVAC technology that I didn’t have to worry about. The smart thermostat was HVAC technology that would allow us to sort of walk away from managing the heating and cooling output. And that’s for sure something we both have done since we became homeowners. We agree on money when it comes to saving on stuff that we don’t need to overpay for. Heating and cooling costs definitely fall into that category. So we figured out how to program the digital thermostat and spent time managing the HVAC. But with the smart thermostat, all we had to do was let it learn our patterns, adjust and save us even more money. It was a no brainer. But of course, my husband found every reason he could to resist. Thanks to the boys playing football in the house, I now have the smart thermostat I always wanted. The old digital thermostat took a direct hit from an overthrown spiral. I should have thought of that a decade ago. Regardless, once the digital thermostat was in pieces on the floor, my husband just didn’t have a leg to stand on any longer resisting new HVAC technology.

Home services

Ductless HVAC helps me find my happy place in my house

It’s not all that easy being a parent. Just ask my wife. When we started our family, we thought we wanted a really big family with like 8 kids. Thankfully, we stopped at four. And still, with four kids, there isn’t a ton of time to just soak up the air conditioning in the quiet. The ironic thing about that is both my wife and I are really quiet people. This is one of the reasons we’ve been so compatible. And actually, this is how we met. Instead of partying through college, I found my way to the library and a favorite corner that got good air conditioning. My wife was the same way and we sort of ended up as partners right from the jump. So having a house full of girls of all things, is certainly an added twist to our lives. When the pandemic started, we all actually did pretty well when it came to respecting each other. We had to share the heating and cooling of our home for over a year. My wife and I were working from home and the kids were schooling online. Still, I found that I really needed a place to just take a breath and be alone. So I had the HVAC company install a ductless heat pump inside the finished attic. It was the perfect spot where I could just slip away for some high quality HVAC cooling and some quiet for just me and my thoughts. The attic and the ductless HVAC are still making that part of the house my happy space even as we are finding the new normal these days. And man, am I ever grateful for that.

 

ductwork

Finding out that I don’t need much but HVAC sure is nice

When I turned 50, everything just changed. Looking back now, I can see that there were some big red flags out there but still, I didn’t see what was coming at all. I think once the kids were out of the quality heating and air of the family home and off to college, I was depressed. That depression deepened when my wife decided that she didn’t want to be married anymore. So we upgraded the HVAC equipment in that house and sold it as part of a quite amicable divorce. And like every time that I faced tough emotional times, I threw myself into my work. It wasn’t that I was super passionate about the work I did inside the zone controlled HVAC of the office. That wasn’t it at all. But through all of my adult life, I could lose myself and my worries in my work. It was just one big ignored function really. Well this time, it just didn’t work. One day I’m on the way to the commercial HVAC office and by that afternoon I was being admitted to a hospital. I just basically had a breakdown to the point where I was almost catatonic. That was obviously the low point. But that was also the door to the most authentic self I could be as well. These days, there are no more 70 hour work weeks inside the zone controlled HVAC of that office. I left all of that. Actually, I am starting over from scratch in a tiny cabin out in the woods. I’m doing some consulting but money really isn’t a concern as my life is just so simple. However, I’m awfully glad to have a ductless heat pump for air conditioning in this cabin. And that’s about as fancy as I get these days.

More info here

Outside the grid there is still HVAC cooling

I have to say that this summer was the most comfortable of all of them since I’ve been living away from here.

  • Living off the grid has been something of a lifeline pursuit that I made happen.

It was a mixture of luck and dogged persistence for any of this to happen. Even with all the knowledge, understanding and great planning, it still comes down to money. I was working from inside the commercial HVAC for a company that I just had no interest in. While I was happy to have honed my skills inside the zone controlled HVAC of the office, that’s as far as it went. As you might imagine, I’m not exactly a corporate sort of person. But I had to have the money. Then, just as I was thinking I’d never get there, a relative died and left me almost the exact amount of money that I needed to finalize my move off the grid. That’s been a bit more than a decade ago and I’ve learned a lot along the way. I am now able to do all of my work from my cabin thanks to satellite wifi. That was a big bonus as I would have to get to the nearest town just to get a signal to do my work. The other thing was putting in a ductless heat pump this spring. An old friend of mine is an HVAC professional and he helped me install it. Of course, I have a wood stove for heating. But having that ductless heat pump and the air conditioning this summer was really an upgrade.

 

Air conditioner install

Making my office at home permanent with HVAC upgrade

It’s funny how life works out.

Of course, like everyone else, I didn’t see the pandemic coming. But it happened and I had to adjust just like the rest of the world. Almost immediately, the company closed the offices and sent us home to figure out how to work remotely. That meant no more zone controlled HVAC for me. And that wasn’t the best because I had to share my home with kids who didn’t want to homeschool in the central air conditioning of our house. Plus, my wife and I were both trying to share the office in our house but had two very different styles of working. Ultimately, this led me to making a space in the basement. The first thing I had to do though was to get some decent heating and cooling down there. The HVAC company came out and installed a ductless heat pump for me and that was the beginning. Over the first months of that summer, I started filling out that home office more and more. Working from home worked for me. So when the eventual layoffs came, I was ready. For years prior, I had planned to leave the company I worked for and go out on my own in a sort of free lance sort of way. Some would call it a consultant but I’m a bit more services oriented than just that. Still, I knew that I would have to start from home with maybe a pair of associates. So the pandemic sort of gave me a head start on what has become a rather successful gig for me. Besides the success, I’m just super pleased to be working for myself and following my passions.

 

Space heater