Does Your Place at the Beach Have Heat?

[Mermaid]

Now before you say "What an idiot question! Of course we have heat! " think about it. Where's your furnace?

I know where the A/C unit is at the condo. I know where the hot water heater is, in the closet by the door. But I'll be darned if I know where the heat comes from. Ideas?

Next, assuming we all have heat, when does it usually need to go on? By Christmas, do you think?

 

[kathydwells]

Now before you say "What an idiot question! Of course we have heat! " think about it. Where's your furnace?

I know where the A/C unit is at the condo. I know where the hot water heater is, in the closet by the door. But I'll be darned if I know where the heat comes from. Ideas?

Next, assuming we all have heat, when does it usually need to go on? By Christmas, do you think?

You probably have a heat pump, in which case it is the same as the air conditioning unit. Look at the temperature control and see if it say's heat on it.

 

[Kurt]

No furnaces. Almost everyone has heat pumps here which only work in mild climates.

 

[Mermaid]

That makes sense to me, but I'd never in a million years have thought of that. The furnaces up North are huge! After a while you get to thinking that that's the norm. We were scratching our heads last night trying to figure out where the heat in our place came from and if we even had any. ;-)

Now when do you usually put it on?

 

[Landlocked]

We turned ours on last night and it smelled like the house was on fire. I guess from the dust burning or something.

 

[Smiling JOe]

That makes sense to me, but I'd never in a million years have thought of that. The furnaces up North are huge! After a while you get to thinking that that's the norm. We were scratching our heads last night trying to figure out where the heat in our place came from and if we even had any. ;-)

Now when do you usually put it on?

I bet you were also wondering where to deliver the heating fuel.:funn:

 

[DBOldford]

Our house has a very large furnace and a/c unit and it is located in its own room next to the laundry room. During the summer, if no one is at the house, we keep the thermostat turned on 75. In winter with no one there, we turn it down to 65. (If you have a management company, they will probably keep it cooler in summer and warmer in winter, even with no one there. We have to harp on this all the time with ours.) Winters at South Walton beaches can be very mild, or they can get hard freezes right around Christmas. Generally speaking, the weather changes by Halloween and begins to get warmer about the second week in March. Very, very important to ask how often your filters will be changed. We find ours in FL require changing out much more often than here in CA.

 

[Mermaid]

I bet you were also wondering where to deliver the heating fuel.:funn:

Alright now smarty pants!

Donna, good advice about the furnace filters. I'm glad you mentioned that because our condo--which is the size of a postage stamp, no joke--came with something like a dozen or more filters! At first we thought there must have been a fire sale on them at the local Target, but now that you've said how often they need to be changed, it makes sense.

 

[Paula]

Definitely take care of changing those filters. We were at the cottage this August and the ceiling just started to leak a tiny bit through a vent. (lucky it happened when we were there and not when renters were there!) So, we figured it was the air conditioner, turned it off. When the repairman came, he showed us the filthy filter and said no one had changed it in months. So, we called our rental agency because we thought they were supposed to be changing the filters. They said they didn't have us on their list of filters to be changed. So, now it's straight but if we hadn't been there there would have been significant damage to the ceiling, floors, who knows what else. All because the filters weren't changed. They should be done monthly. In fact, I'm going to call our agency tomorrow to be sure we're on their filter change list now!

 

[Beach Runner]

I'm just glad I happened to drive down by myself on the 12th to discover that the pool heater was broken. My family and my daughter's friends (AND I) would have really been ticked off if we couldn't get in the pool and hot tub during Thanksgiving!

We check on things frequently because we've found that we can't totally depend on others to care for our things as we would.