This has been busier than normal heating season. I suppose this winter was colder than most in the last decade. For the first time in years, we had to make numerous repairs to frozen pipes. There were many late nights and weekends that required me or my men to work extra hours. I’m sure we were not alone.

These days, my son takes care of most of the night and weekend calls. I would guess he does about ninety five percent of the emergency calls, and I do about five percent. When I was his age, the percentages were about the same with me and my father. I did not like being on call most of the time and our son doesn’t either. Unfortunately, in the service business we must be there for the customer. Thankfully, by next heating season will have another person or two to help with the emergency calls.

This past weekend was my turn to be on call. I “borrowed" my son’s well equipped truck for the weekend. While the truck only gets about eight miles to the gallon, the big truck comes in handy. The truck has almost any tool or meter one could ever need. The truck also has more parts on it than many local suppliers. Oh, and if you happen to need a few lengths of two inch or three inch steel pipe that will be in the truck too. As you can imagine, the truck is very heavy. Hopefully, we can pull some of the materials out of the truck and put them back in the truck now that the heating season is almost over.

On Friday night, I received a call from the superintendent of an apartment complex we take care of. There was inadequate hot water for the entire complex. There are two hot water makers and two storage tanks at this site. When I arrived, I noticed the five month old hot water maker had water underneath the unit. Apparently, the heat exchanger failed and may have been leaking since it was installed. This brand may have the most reliable heat exchanger on the market. I have seen these units with the copper heat exchanger last more than thirty years. Anyway, I got the new unit running and the second older unit fired up and the tenants could now take a shower. We will have to replace the heat exchanger soon.

Sunday morning around 8:30am, I got a no heat call from a homeowner. When I arrived the two young kids greeted me at the front door, as Mom stood behind them. The kids were wearing their coats over their pajamas. I headed to the basement and checked the for voltage at the transformer, it was fine. Then I checked the limit circuit, everything checked out. I asked when the when was the last time the boiler was serviced? She hesitated and eventually responded, "never."

I suspected the problem may have been the original stack damper from 1991. I rocked the damper shaft and expected the unit to fire, instead it did nothing. I cycled the emergency switch, and the unit fired immediately. After cycling the unit a dozen times, I could not reproduce the problem. I ended up not charging her but warned her it would act up again. She understood and agreed to keep a close eye on the boiler and call me when and if the unit failed again.

It was now about 10:00am. I was carrying the tool bag in one hand, the electric meter in the other hand and walking towards the work truck. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed an older lady walking across her lawn towards me. She was wearing a house coat (yes, they still make them) and bedroom slippers. She greeted me speaking Spanish, I looked at her and said, "No comprendo." For a moment I thought to myself, I wished I paid attention in high school when they tried to teach me Spanish. I thought I would never use Spanish, boy was I wrong!

For the first time in years, we had to make numerous repairs to frozen pipes. There were many late nights and weekends that required me or my men to work extra hours. I’m sure we were not alone.

Thankfully, the woman was bilingual and spoke perfect English. She stopped me to ask if I could look at her steam heating system. As we entered the house, she told me that she and her husband lived in the house for twenty-five years. We looked at the steam boiler, it was two years old. Not piped correctly or even close to what the manufacturer specifies, but it was new. While standing in the basement crouching for the five foot six ceiling (I am six foot two, without boots) I asked what is wrong with the boiler? She replies, “noting, I wanted you to look at my radiators." I wondered why we had to weave our way through all the piles in the basement if there was a problem upstairs with the radiators?

We weaved our way back up to the living room and the lady mentioned that three of the seven radiators have not worked since they moved in. These three radiators are just sitting in the rooms, not connected to the piping. The three cold rooms were the bathroom (the only bathroom in the house), the spare bedroom and the living room. I was thinking to myself, and you thought it was a promising idea to flag me down on a Sunday morning for this? Can you imagine sitting on a cold toilet every winter for the last twenty five years? Can you imagine seeing your breath on a frosty winter day in your own bathroom for twenty five years? I guess the spare bedroom might not have been that cold if you left the door open.

I scribbled down notes and gave the lady a ballpark price to have the work done. She did not seem too interested once I shared the numbers. I suppose I wasted an hour of my time on a Sunday morning.

I was happy to get the hot water going at the apartment complex. I was happy to get the heat going (for now) at the house with the little kids. I learned a lesson (again) on the second call Sunday morning, learn how to say NO.