A few weeks ago, while staying with our sibling, his furnace broke down in the middle of the night, and it wouldn’t have been so awful except it was one of the coldest days of the season.
The temperature outside had dropped to a chilling 15 degrees. So, I needed the furnace to stay warm, when I woke up that morning his home was beyond cold, and no matter how much clothes I had on, I was still cold. Thankfully, he had an area furnace in his garage that I was able to use! However, this furnace was an older model, which means it didn’t have the safeguards that the newer section heating systems have, and for instance, the newer section heating systems 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 unit overheats. Finally, the modern section heating systems have control units that can monitor the temperature inside the home and adjust itself accordingly, because our sibling’s section gas furnace had none of these features, I was a bit concerned about having it close to anything. These are the heating systems that are responsible for so many fires, people tend to leave them unattended which has led to major disasters. My sibling wanted me to use the furnace in the guest room, although I told him I wasn’t comfortable with doing that. So, I made the decision to go out to a local hardware store to purchase a newer section heater, one that had all the safety features. I used the gas furnace for the next many days while I was waiting for the furnace to get fixed. I advocated for my sibling to throw away the old section gas furnace because the risk of using it is not worth it.