An Emergency

Yesterday morning, I woke to a cold house.  As soon as I rolled from bed, I knew my boiler had failed somewhere in the night.  At the time the temperature outside was at -18 degrees.

Deadly cold.

Fortunately, I have a variety of electric heaters I sprinkle throughout the house during arctic weather events such as the one currently gripping us.  A quick tour of the house revealed all the heaters galloping along in grand fashion.  Even with that, some room thermostats indicated a temperature of around 60 degrees.  To bring up the temperature a bit, I flopped open the door on my range and set the oven to bake at 300 degrees.

From past experience, I know that inside my house, when confronted with outside conditions such this, the temperature will drop 3 degrees every hour I go without any heat.

A power failure at this point would end me.

I am pretty good at boiler-speak.  I understand how they function.  A quick round of troubleshooting proved the boiler and gas valve in working order.  Propane was not reaching me from the tank outside.

I called my favorite plumber.  He told me his work started and stopped at the boiler.  He suggested a call to my propane provider (similar to a drug dealer, but both legal and pricier).   

I called my propane company and explained my boiler was not working and I suspected a problem with the tank I rented from them.

“Our service guys are booked out for two months,” the woman I spoke with told me.  “We might be able to do something if you have an emergency.”  

Weird.  Here I was, thinking I had an actual emergency.

— Mitchell Hegman

NOTE:  Eventually I spoke with someone from “the crew.”   Help was dispatched immediately.