topic Re: An Inconvient Night turned Great in Community Chat

An Inconvient Night turned Great

qvcaddition — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 23:43:52 GMT

Sitting watching TV I Felt all this cold air so checked my central heating. The thermostat was up for heat, but the degree was down and cold air coming out of vents.

Called PGE, I live alone and it was 10pm. I was told no appointments available until next Monday, one week from call. The CS told me to get someone to light the pilot light. I kept telling her it has no pilot light. It,s has a special system electronically.

I finally had to make appt. Hang up and shiver. I took out the paperwork from when I brought the heater and installed in 2005. It was about 10:30PM, and desperate I called the man,s number, got the answering machine, left a message. Fifteen minutes lat e r the man called me back. Twenty minutes later he was a t my house. By 11:30 PM, I had heat again. It did cost me 100.00 but well worth it.

This gentleman is still in business and lives one mile from me. I was so lucky. He said Pge could not have helped me. It has no pilot light, so they would have recommended a contractor. He normally would have charged 79.00, but was after hours. I did not care. Being alone and elderly, I needed heat. I consider me lucky.

Re: An Inconvient Night turned Great

suzyQ3 — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 23:29:06 GMT

You were indeed lucky but also smart to think of getting out your paperwork.

Re: An Inconvient Night turned Great

freakygirl — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 23:29:20 GMT

i consider you lucky too! i'm so glad things worked out well, and right away.

Re: An Inconvient Night turned Great

Annabellethecat66 — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 23:35:50 GMT

@qvcaddition Yes! You were lucky, but you know that. A few years ago during a really, really big Va snow storm, I was alone in my all electric house for 4 days without electricity.

All of the wires were across my drivewary and I couldn't get out when they finally cleaned the road. The driveway is 200 ft long but it's on a hill, I could have just rolled down it. I didn't know if the wires were live so I sat in my car (outside) during the day and covered up at night for 3 nights and 4 full days.

My family couldn't get to me because they hadn't cleared the road and my daughter lives at least 40 to 45 minutes away.

I still live in the all electric house but I now have a kerosene heater and several huge batteries, etc. I will never have to go through that again.

Yes, you were lucky. I'm 70 and I know old bones can't take the heat like when a person is young.

Re: An Inconvient Night turned Great

Zhills — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 23:39:11 GMT

Miracles happen every day! This was your day!

Re: An Inconvient Night turned Great

qvcaddition — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 23:47:57 GMT

@Annabellethecat66 wrote:
@qvcaddition Yes! You were lucky, but you know that. A few years ago during a really, really big Va snow storm, I was alone in my all electric house for 4 days without electricity.

All of the wires were across my drivewary and I couldn't get out when they finally cleaned the road. The driveway is 200 ft long but it's on a hill, I could have just rolled down it. I didn't know if the wires were live so I sat in my car (outside) during the day and covered up at night for 3 nights and 4 full days.

My family couldn't get to me because they hadn't cleared the road and my daughter lives at least 40 to 45 minutes away.

I still live in the all electric house but I now have a kerosene heater and several huge batteries, etc. I will never have to go through that again.

Yes, you were lucky. I'm 70 and I know old bones can't take the heat like when a person is young.

I am so sorry you went through that. I know how I felt last night, it was horrible me for you. I,m 80 and the bones can,t take the cold. The man was wonderful for coming at that hour. He could have said tomorrow.

Re: An Inconvient Night turned Great

Mominohio — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 23:57:00 GMT

I'm so glad you still had your paperwork, that the man who came out was such a great guy and that you didn't have to go without heat for very long. $100 is so much better than cold, and I can't believe that is all it cost.

Seems like things never go wrong in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week, do they?

We are all electric, and have baseboard heat, but we try to have several back up heat sources. We have Duraflame heaters throughout the house, kerosene heaters and a wood stove, as well as a generator for if the power goes off.

I would think that people who heat with a furnace whether gas or electric, might want to consider at least a Duraflame or two. They won't work in a power outage, but good for if it is just the furnace on the blink.

Re: An Inconvient Night turned Great

newagain888888 — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 00:05:41 GMT

My mother is a youthful 82. Each year she loves to cook a Christmas dinner and invite all of the family over. Children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren come from near and far to celebrate one day a year. This past holiday season her home experienced a major power surge that badly damaged the electronics on her 6 year old double oven stove. The stove's estimated repair would have cost more than a new appliance, so she hurried down to Lowe's a few days before Christmas and ordered a single oven style replacement. All day Christmas Eve she anxiously waited for the hoped-for but not guaranteed delivery of the stove so she could begin cooking her turkey and Christmas meal.

Against all odds, the stove did arrive that evening, but it couldn't be hooked up because the previous wiring was found to be faulty and didn't meet code. It's a miracle her damaged stove had not caught fire with the power surge since it had been hot-wired and wasn't grounded. She was saddened that her family Christmas celebration would be impossibe after all, but Lowe's gave her the cell number for an electrician who could properly install the stove at a later date.

Mom gave him a call that evening. This was early evening on Christmas Eve. The young man was out with a friend grocery shopping for the holidays. Do you know he dropped everything and came directly to her home with the necessary equipment and installed that stove on Christmas Eve? It took quite a while and he was missing out on his own holiday celebration, but he was happy to do it. Not only did he make such a sacrifice, he refused to charge her for his services. To know that there are giving people like that in the world today brings joy to my heart.

Re: An Inconvient Night turned Great

Lapdog — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 01:43:12 GMT

Dear Ladies your stories bring tears to my eyes.

There are so many very good people in this world. I wish we could hear more about these acts of goodwill and grace.

We need more reminders. Thank-you.

Re: An Inconvient Night turned Great

Lila Belle — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 01:49:50 GMT

I'm so glad you had a good outcome...and heat.

Re: An Inconvient Night turned Great

akaburtonfan — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 01:51:43 GMT

@Annabellethecat66 wrote:
@qvcaddition Yes! You were lucky, but you know that. A few years ago during a really, really big Va snow storm, I was alone in my all electric house for 4 days without electricity.

All of the wires were across my drivewary and I couldn't get out when they finally cleaned the road. The driveway is 200 ft long but it's on a hill, I could have just rolled down it. I didn't know if the wires were live so I sat in my car (outside) during the day and covered up at night for 3 nights and 4 full days.

My family couldn't get to me because they hadn't cleared the road and my daughter lives at least 40 to 45 minutes away.

I still live in the all electric house but I now have a kerosene heater and several huge batteries, etc. I will never have to go through that again.

Yes, you were lucky. I'm 70 and I know old bones can't take the heat like when a person is young.

@Annabellethecat66 -- Is the kerosene heater for inside the house? I thought they were strictly for use outside because of the exhaust they put out.

After a several day power outage we had an automatic generator installed. We have used it less than a couple of hours but it sure was worth the $$ knowing we will always have power, heat and water.

Re: An Inconvient Night turned Great

Annabellethecat66 — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 01:59:54 GMT

@akaburtonfan Yes it's for indoors. When my girls were growing up I often used one in the downstairs rec room. I'm used to using them although I haven't in quite some time.

Hopefully, I will never have to use it but I have plenty of kerosene, etc. I'm used to doing things on my own. My late husband traveled down to Florida to the property we developed often every other week. He worked 2 jobs and went to school at night for many years after we were married. Just about 2 months ago, I lost my hot water. I went down and the circut breaker had tripped (no big deal). I reset that, then I took the trap door off of the top part of the hot water heater and reset it. It works great now.

I had a husband who fixed and worked on everything himself. He taught me how to do things. He believed women could do just about anything women could do as long as they tried it.

I don't want to put in a generator, etc because I'm getting the house ready to sell it. It's 3,000 square feet, 2 car garage and sits on an acre. Most of the time I don't even go into the rooms. So you can see where I don't want to do too much (other than painted, etc).

Thank you for caring though. You are so sweet to think of me and I appreciate it. Fondly, Annabelle/Linda

Re: An Inconvient Night turned Great

Azcowgirl — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 06:14:30 GMT

Thank heaven for a happy ending !

reminds me of when my water heater sprung a leak late at night on the weekend when DH was out of town (of course)

after sopping up water with towels for 4 hours, (tried to turn water off) finally got utilities guy to come out ...turns out the water shut off was at end of our property down the road !! No wonder I couldn't get it shut off ):

He didn't charge me anything.

eta......I had a valve installed in the laundry room so now I can shut the water off if I need to 😊

Re: An Inconvient Night turned Great

Pearlee — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 19:17:16 GMT

I recommend buying a space heater and having it, for just such an occurrence. I own a Holmes (good brand) and have had to use it occasionally. It heats up about one room (you can buy them larger and smaller than the one I own). It cost under $30 at Target on sale. It can save you the price of an emergency service call after hours. I'm glad to have mine around - I've had occasion to use it several times to keep me from getting cold.

Re: An Inconvient Night turned Great

BabyYoda — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 23:22:00 GMT

@Pearlee wrote:
I recommend buying a space heater and having it, for just such an occurrence. I own a Holmes (good brand) and have had to use it occasionally. It heats up about one room (you can buy them larger and smaller than the one I own). It cost under $30 at Target on sale. It can save you the price of an emergency service call after hours. I'm glad to have mine around - I've had occasion to use it several times to keep me from getting cold.

Absolutely great advice. I have space heaters just in case. We have used them in one room when the house gets too cold and the furnace can't keep up in the winter.

Re: An Inconvient Night turned Great

x Hedge — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 10:59:07 GMT

Have an assortment of room sized and smaller heaters for that purpise. I've had furnace shut down in a blizzard but fortunately never lost electricity, so was able to make due and keep plumbing from freezing with heaters for a couple days.

Re: An Inconvient Night turned Great

drizzellla — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 11:23:11 GMT

Am I impressed! Not only did he come out at night at 10:30 BUT only charged you $100. I am glad to hear that you had such a warm and timely outcome.

We frequently lose power. And one ice storm we were without power for 4 days. So we now had a freestanding gas fireplace. It works even when we don't have power - so we always have a source of heat.

Re: An Inconvient Night turned Great

qvcaddition — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 16:25:35 GMT

I have also sent him a thank you card today.