September 19, 2007. Furnace Day.
The house was a toe-tingling 11°C when I returned from work this afternoon. Fortunately, I had thought to open the outside propane valves this morning; usually it takes a few hours for the gas to begin flowing again.
Unusually, the furnace started on just the third or fourth attempt. I'm not yet sure what to do with the surplus of profanities I had accumulated in preparation for the lighting.
In past years, I had been forced to summon the aid of a professional furnace-lighter: Ed. Ed doesn't have a web page, so I can't show a link, but Ed's the guy to call when you need propane furnace service. Now that I think of it, I'm not even sure if he has a listed phone number.
I learned a couple of propane secrets from Ed:
- You can detect whether the propane is flowing into a furnace using a lit match on the end of a stick.
- A propane repairman measures the length of his career in matches.
And so another heating season begins. Let us pray that this winter's temperature remains consistently above the boiling point of propane, -42°C, for I don't want to be out in that trying to defrost the line with a blow-dryer.
Archived Comments
I'll also be praying that we don't get another massive power outage this winter. Our home is more prepared for it now, but with the high number of outages experienced during the summer, I'm anxious.
I was just on the phone with Yukon Energy this morning trying to find out how often the power has been out recently. The PR person to which I was referred has yet to return my call. I'll report any news that I hear.