Losing Heat on a Cold Day at Our Retail Location Was Uncomfortable to Say the Least

The furnace in our house is new and has all kinds of gadgets to make it burn every bit of energy out of every cubic foot of gas that flows through it. In the old days I have adjusted burners, replaced blower motors and even replaced things such as temperature sensors. The new stuff is all different looking to me. The furnace at the store we own is even more complicated looking. When it quit working on a cold day, I called a company that fixes commercial HVAC in NYC to come out and fix it. I did not want to have to close early as this was the busy season for sales. However, I could not have employees try to work in a store that was getting colder every time a customer came through the door.

It was getting quite chilly in the store by the time the furnace was fixed. The wind was blowing hard outside and it was cold. The front doors were automatic, and they were opening and closing every few seconds as customers went in and out. A few customers had complained about it being cold to my managers. There was nothing we could do at the moment. My employees had it worse because they were not wearing coats like the customers were. They handled it like troopers though. It was not frigid in the store, but 60 degrees inside when it is frigid outside feels colder than it actually is. I was shivering and could not wait for the heat to come back on.

I was very happy when I heard that familiar “whoosh” of the furnace blowers coming on in the store. The rush of warm air was being blown out at the ceiling, and it was feeling better immediately. Some control module that handles the distribution of the forced air heat had failed, and this causes the system to not come on. I was just glad the company that fixes commercial HVAC in NYC was able to get it fixed so fast.