A few months ago, while staying with my sibling, his oil furnace broke down in the middle of the night.
It wouldn’t have been so bad except it was one of the coldest days of the season.
The temperature outside had dropped to a chilling 15 degrees, and so, we needed the furnace to stay warm! When we woke up that afternoon his house was beyond cold, and no matter how much clothes I had on, I was still cold. Thankfully, he had a space furnace in his garage that we were able to use. This furnace was an older model, which means it didn’t have the safeguards that the newer space furnaces have. For instance, the newer space furnaces have tip-over switches where the units will turn off when they are not upright. They also come equipped with automatic shut off switches in case the device overheats. Finally, the current space furnaces have thermostats that can monitor the temperature inside the house and adjust itself accordingly! Because my sibling’s space furnace had none of these features, I was a bit worried about having it close to anything. These are the furnaces that are responsible for so many fires, and people tend to leave them unattended which has led to major disasters. My sibling wanted me to use the furnace in the guest room, but I told him I wasn’t comfortable with doing that. So, we opted to go out to a local hardware store to purchase a newer space heater, one that had all the safety features. I used the furnace for the next many days while we were waiting for the furnace to get fixed. I suggested that my sibling throw away the old space furnace because the risk of using it is not worth it.