As soon as we retired, my husband and I bought a little house down south.
We were tired of the sub zero temperatures, brutal windchill and endless amounts of snow.
We didn’t want to shovel, scrape or plow anymore. We were ready to trade our heavy boots and wool coats for sandals and T-shirts. Where we lived up north, we didn’t even need central air conditioning. The furnace ran for six to eight months per year. We wanted a house far enough south to avoid snow, but not so far that the heat and humidity would be unbearable. Our new house is equipped with an electric packaged unit that provides both heating and cooling. For a good share of the year, it acts just like an air conditioner. The system supplies plenty of cool air to keep the house perfectly comfortable. It’s both quiet and energy efficient. When the weather turns cooler, we simply switch to heating mode. Most of the time, it can manage the winter weather. Now and then, however, the temperature dips below freezing and our heating system struggles. It runs nonstop and can even ice over and quit. We’ve ended up buying a portable electric heater that looks just like an actual wood burning stove. We love the ambience and the heat it provides. We can turn the heater on with the tap of a button on a cordless remote. It operates nearly silently and is totally clean. It puts out just enough extra heat to help our central heating system. Our living room stays toasty warm on those extra cold nights.