My parents love home maintenance and renovation projects and at some point, they both started a business of making fixer-upper homes livable for their new owners.
I opted to join their business during my gap year as I tried to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life and they assigned me the task of finding cooling and heating equipment.
My first encounter with an electric heating system was when we did an old home where the new owners wanted to do away with the propane boiler and install an electric heat pump. It sounded exotic to me because our home uses a central HVAC. My first task was to go to the HVAC serviceman business in town and find an HVAC specialist to guide me through the best electric HVAC as specified by the expert from the diverse unit offered under the HVAC products for sale. At first, I wasn’t meant to catch all the details about it but to find out the cost of each plus the installation expenses as well as the features it came with. I went back with a catalog and the suggestion to include the heating technician in the final meeting with the client before deciding on what to buy for the house. The technician would be well versed with energy-saving tips as well as details of the pros and cons of each available piece of equipment and its compatibility with the house. I remember our client wanted a heat pump installation because they had been told it was an energy saver, with minimal heater maintenance demands. It also came with an HEPA filter and wireless thermostat which would save them additional equipment costs. By the end of the project, they were satisfied with everything including the HVAC.