A few months ago, while staying with our sibling, her gas furnace broke down in the middle of the evening.
It wouldn’t have been so bad except it was one of the coldest nights of the season, but the temperature outside had dropped to a chilling 15 degrees.
So, we needed the furnace to stay warm, when we woke up that morning her home was beyond frigid, and no matter how much clothes I had on, I was still cold. Thankfully, she had a space furnace in her garage that all of us were able to use! However, 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 unit overheats. Finally, the space furnaces have control units that can monitor the temperature inside the home and adjust itself accordingly, and because our 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, 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 her I wasn’t comfortable with doing that. So, all of us made the decision 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 a few days while all of us were waiting for the furnace to get fixed. I suggested to my sibling to throw away the old space furnace because the risk of using it is not worth it.