It has been a really cold winter this year and my brother found himself in an awful spot.
Each year, he tries to heat his home primarily with a wood stove.
He lives on a large parcel of land with many trees. This affords him an almost endless supply of firewood and the only expense is gas for the chainsaw and splitter, along with his time in cutting it. This year, he underestimated the amount of wood he would need. We have enjoyed milder winters over the past four years so he had cut back on his wood supply. Now, he is faced with a terrible situation. Not only has his firewood supply almost run out, he also has an HVAC system that doesn’t work properly. When we asked him why he hadn’t kept up with the maintenance on the system, he just said that he figured that using the firwood was enough and so it was no big deal. Well, he was very wrong. There is no way for him to replenish his wood supply with dry, seasoned wood and now he needs to contact an HVAC company to come fix his furnace. There is no way of telling how long this winter will last and with temperatures still in the 20’s he definitely needs a quality heating system. I am really surprised that he let things go as long as he did. If the system is too bad he will need to pay for a complete replacement and that can cost thousands of dollars. I am hopeful for him but figure that he will learn from this too.