The Joys of Homeownership

I see Doug already posted about the momentary malfunction of our heating system, but I must tell you my thoughts on it. I sleep under a blanket and sheet and like to be toasty warm when I sleep. So when I wake up to nurse Gabriel in the middle of the night, sometimes I shiver. I didn't really think anything of this particular shivering session until I picked up Gabriel and noticed his hands were cooler than usual, bordering on cold. Then I looked at Doug. Mister sheet-around-the-waist had the sheet pulled up to his neck. I put a second, warmer blanket around Gabriel as I held him to me and went to investigate the thermometer/clock we have in the kitchen. My jaw dropped when I noticed that it said61 degrees. I checked to see if the thermostat had been bumped and found it set on 68 degrees. I went over to the register along the wall and it felt cold. That was when I woke up Doug. I knew it was in the teens or something like that outside, and the temperature in the house would fall fast if we didn't do anything. My first thought after keeping my baby warm was that the birds need it to be 70 degrees in here. I was glad Doug was home for this little problem. I would have been panicking if I had to try to figure out how to make the boiler kick on while trying to nurse Gabriel. I'm no good at that fix-it stuff anyway. I probably would have run over to our neighbor across the street and pleaded for help. I'm incredibly clueless when it comes to this stuff. The ironic thing is that I just finished checking the boiler and thermostat again because it is now 78 degrees in here. I'm roasting! I've concluded that it is only the sun pouring in that is heating up the house. We'll pretend it is summer for a few hours.

Baby, it's cold... inside.

Heather woke me at 4:30 this morning and told me that the house was chilly. It wasn’t an icebox, but it was 61 degrees, definitely colder than it should have been. It turned out to be a minor issue, though that is a bit cool for the birds. We turned on the electric registers while we waited for the boiler to heat the hot water registers. Come to think of it, the cost of electricity has actually gone down in the last ten years, while the rate for natural gas continues to rise. Would it make more sense to heat the house with the electric heaters? We aren't sure, but it is something we are considering.

We decided to use “dual heat” for now, turning the registers up to a few degrees less than the optimal temperature, with the thought that it would help moderate the temperature and maybe save us a buck or two. If the hot water boiler doesn’t kick in, the electric registers will keep the house from getting icy cold. Oh… the problem with the boiler? I have no idea. I turned off the breakers for five minutes and turned the power back on. Apparently I had to reset an electrical relay or something. The house is toasty warm again.