By Pete Gardner

The winter transition has begun for the season. It is starting to get colder and the leaves are dropping quickly. While I look forward to not having to mow the lawn every week, I don’t look forward to raking leaves and putting on tons of clothing. Just to go get the mail it is a bother for me to have to put on a jacket. I’m not one who likes the cold weather that much as I have gotten older and don’t do much outside activity.

On another note, in the home that I live in, we have woods around most of the house and in the summer we can’t see our neighbors so it’s quiet and peaceful. With the leaves dropping our neighbor’s homes slowly appear all around us. We can see some fireplaces being used due to the smoke coming out of the chimneys and the smell of burning wood. Having visited some of our neighbor’s homes with fireplaces, I have noticed that almost all of them don’t have a fireplace that has a blower to circulate the heat. Most of the heat goes right out the chimney and probably some of the furnace heat with it. For the most part, the fireplace is just an ornament that gets used for its visual pleasure. I wonder if most of these homeowners pay any attention to their heating bills or the additional stress on their heating units. That is not such a bad thing for the HVAC professionals though as you might be able to sell and install the parts needed for their fireplaces to be more productive and add to the overall heating of their homes.

The season change is also the time to take the opportunity to remind customers about the importance of regular maintenance to keep them warm this coming winter. I for one, having experienced the loss of my heating unit on a very cold night, wouldn’t want to go through that again and was very grateful to have had a technician come out and do the repair in a short amount of time. He was courteous, knowledgeable and quick.

I’m sure this winter is going to be a cold one, so be prepared.

Until next month, drive safely and keep a good attitude.