Friday, March 08, 2024

Today, an installation crew has arrived to replace my home heater. They’ll change all but the heat pump. This fix has been waiting for months, a holdoff forced by our very cold weather. Severe cold prevented technicians from adequately assessing why the reduced heat output. While we waited for warmer weather, my home was on “emergency heat,” generated by electricity and outrageously expensive. Plus, my part-time job makes it like pulling teeth to get time off in these days of too few workers.

Finally, all is coming together. Hopefully, the heating system will become operable today.

It’s nagging me that the failed heater problem falls squarely on the shoulders of an independent electrician who replaced my heat pump five years ago. I understand now that the pump he installed generated higher pressure on the heater lines. The independent workman didn’t address that problem. Over time, higher pressures blew holes in the heater lines. My system failed and became unrepairable.

This changeout is an expensive process.

I don’t recall the name of the independent contractor who installed the heat pump. He seemed knowledgeable and probably was. I’m stuck with guessing why he didn’t complete the work of correctly adding a significant new component to an old system. I’ve been angry at that independent contractor since the leaks were diagnosed.

This is an expensive lesson. The upshot is that I’ll not hire another independent worker, regardless of how capable one might seem. Today, Bend Heating is changing the heater. The company has been around for years, has an excellent reputation, and will be available to fix anything that might eventually go wrong in the new heating system.

This little Central Oregon city has always been a boom-and-bust environment. It’s growing like Topsy, and many independent contractors are around today. Well, not for me. No more.

Dear Friends: Some episodes call for “biting the bullet” and moving on afterward. Diana