Turning on the Heater

I have only had to turn on the heater a few times thus far this fall. This is good on the one hand because it means my electic bill will be lower but on the other hand, I like the cooler weather and we so badly need some rain.

Every year since I have owned my home the first time I turn on my heater for the season brings excitement and chaos in the house. This year, like all the past years, when the furnace heats up it burns off the dust in the ducts and sends a little burning smoke through the vents. My vents are in my ceiling and most of the vents are near the door to the bedrooms. And what do I have near each door inside each bedroom? That's right, my law mandated smoke/fire dectectors.

Somehow, each year I forget what happens the first time I turn the heater on and this year was no exception. A couple weeks ago, I woke at my normal 5am to feed my hungry cats and it was really chilly in the house. I decided to turn on the heat to warm the place up and to make it easer when I go to take my shower. I turned the heater on and proceeded to feed my cats. The old furnance rumbled and groaned but soon was heating up the house. I smelled that slight little burning smell and then the alarms went off. The cats went scrambling, spilt their water bowl, dry cat food went flying all over the floor. Now I am trying to fan the vents to disapate the smoke but I've got 3 bedrooms to do. A nice calm wake up turned into a frantic scene. I chuckled to myself when I finally laid back down for a few minutes before I needed to head to the shower.

This reminded me of the first year I owned the house when we turned the heater on for the first time. All summer long, the inside of the house was going through major transformations. The popcorn stuff on the ceiling was taken off, new drywall, new texture, new paint, removed all the layers of flooring, new windows, new doors, new baseboards and trim around the doors, . . . let's just say I am sure there was extra dust in the ducts. My faithful friend and contractor, Michael, had installed a new tempurture control box and somehow it did not get placed in the off mode. The next morning the new control box and pre-programed cycle started at 4:30 am. My sister Amy laid fast asleep in one room, my other roommate, my good friend Sandi, lay asleep in another room and I fast asleep in my bedroom. All of a sudden all of the fire alarms are screaming out that there is a fire and it sure smelled like fire. I jumped out of bed, only half dressed in my sleeping clothes, with fear of my "new first" home burning down and my roommates being in danger. I raced to Amy's room opened the door and no fire, she was starting to awaken at this point, I then raced to Sandi's room, opened the door, no fire, Sandi was fast asleep. Amy was out of bed at this point. I ran down to the kitchen trying to smell and sniff where the fire was, I opened the garage door but nothing. I could smell fire but there was none that I could find. I think I discovered that it was the heater at this point but I was still concerned for the smell. Amy was trying to wake Sandi but Sandi was still sleeping (Sandi has a hearing impairment and at night does not wear her hearing aids). Amy was shaking her at this point to get up and to get out of the house. We all gathered in the hallway, not really knowing what had awoken us from a dead sleep. Finally, we all got our bearings and realized that the heater turned on and that the dust was burning in the ducts. We all went back to bed with racing hearts.

We sure laughed about the chaos later that day when we all came back home from our separate days.