Another thing I’ve learned as a homeowner is how hard it is to repair anything these days. Our home was renovated in the early 2000s, but it’s still a lucky break if you can find a replacement part. We needed some replacement stone tiles for the kitchen and found a spot that sold the same ones. I called and they had the last batch available before they were discontinued forever. Similarly, the J hook broke on a garage door opener. The manufacturer was defunct, but luckily a local shop had one sitting around in the back they would sell us for $30. So basically the death of business continuity means that you almost always have to replace instead of repairing.
Our home had a roughly similar situation with our 3 year old smart furnace. The control console was always a bit funky, but one day the furnace stopped running due to some sort of software foul up. The repairman said it would be a few weeks before a replacement console would arrive, but luckily it was spring and not too cold out. My wife went ballistic and we “temporarily” replaced it with the simplest, dumb thermostat available. Nearly a year later the replacement console hasn’t shown up , but we don’t want it anyway. Moral of the story: you can have a great system, but that doesn’t help you if you can’t turn it on and off reliably.
Another thing I’ve learned as a homeowner is how hard it is to repair anything these days. Our home was renovated in the early 2000s, but it’s still a lucky break if you can find a replacement part. We needed some replacement stone tiles for the kitchen and found a spot that sold the same ones. I called and they had the last batch available before they were discontinued forever. Similarly, the J hook broke on a garage door opener. The manufacturer was defunct, but luckily a local shop had one sitting around in the back they would sell us for $30. So basically the death of business continuity means that you almost always have to replace instead of repairing.
Our home had a roughly similar situation with our 3 year old smart furnace. The control console was always a bit funky, but one day the furnace stopped running due to some sort of software foul up. The repairman said it would be a few weeks before a replacement console would arrive, but luckily it was spring and not too cold out. My wife went ballistic and we “temporarily” replaced it with the simplest, dumb thermostat available. Nearly a year later the replacement console hasn’t shown up , but we don’t want it anyway. Moral of the story: you can have a great system, but that doesn’t help you if you can’t turn it on and off reliably.