These days, it’s not my favorite time of year.
I look forward to the end of the brutal hot season for months on end, but whenever the day finally arrives and I feel the uneven hot and cold temperatures start flowing through my area, I’m not a happy camper.
To me, cold air signals one thing and only one thing; high energy bills. Every year when the outdoor climate shifts, so does my spending. My finances are essentially all tied up in one activity, and that’s heating my damn house. I swear, it costs more with each passing cold season. Last year I spent nearly a third of my paycheck on a few particularly cold weeks when I couldn’t get the house to stay consistently warm. This year, I’m not looking forward to going through the same debacle. I’ve been doing my best to insulate the house, seal all the doors and windows, and upgrade my heating, cooling, and ventilation system all year long. Unfortunately, the world has been actively working against me and undoing this plan, one mouse bite at a time. A few weeks ago I finally switched on the furnace for the first time all season, and at first it seemed like the heating system was efficiently warming up my place without incident. When I returned home from work later that day, it felt cooler inside the house than I imagined. After several days of this and a professional HVAC service appointment, the answer was before me; mice had eaten holes through my air ducts. I can’t afford to replace the extensive air passage, so I’m stuck with an inefficient HVAC system all winter. These energy bills are going to be through the roof.