Accommodating the HVAC needs of the in-laws
We couldn’t wait to skip the annual trip up north for Christmas.
I had always had a little bit of resentment about leaving a perfectly mild winter for a place that needed a gas furnace to stay warm. In fact, during the winter, we hardly ever need any heating from the heat pump at home. For instance, on a chilly morning, we can usually get by with turning on the space heater for an hour. So, I detested having to pack up and travel a thousand miles up north where I would freeze for a week. Around this time last year, my wife and I decided that staying home for the holidays made more sense because the kids were older. I was ecstatic to spend the entire winter in the land of the heat pump. But that also meant that my wife’s parents would be visiting for something like two weeks. That much time with the in-laws is considerable. They also have very different heating requirements, which didn’t exactly excite me. I would sweat in their house due to the gas furnace running constantly, despite the fact that it is only in the single digits there during Christmas. Before my wife’s parents arrived, I made the decision to get ahead of that. This visit provided me with an excuse to modify the existing HVAC system so that zone controlled HVAC is available throughout the home. My in-laws’ room had a thermostat when they arrived as a result. As long as it was in the guest area, they could perform the heating they required. In fact, we had the best Christmas I can recall, and I believe the in-laws appreciated the zone-controlled HVAC.