I’ve lived here for all of my 55 years.
Well, that’s not entirely true. There was the time that I spent in college which was out of state but not out of the south. And I had to take a job up north for 3 years. That was a long, cold 3 years and hopefully the last time I even need a gas furnace. No, this part of the world is what I know and what I’m familiar with. I love the winter here and the fact that we rarely need much HVAC heating to stay warm. There are a few months where we might get a cold snap now and again. The heat pump makes quick work of that. Flipping the thermostat over to heating happens occasionally and not for long. The winter is a time to be outside as much as possible as the weather is just delicious. Of course, we balance all of that out with heat the rest of the year. The summer is particularly challenging when it comes to heat and humidity. But when you’ve seen as many of them as I have, you sort of know how to handle it. And while we all need some HVAC cooling to manage the heat of summer, there are far too many who just plain over do it. This results in a waste of resources as well as soaring air conditioning costs when it comes to the utilities. I simply wait as long as I can to turn on the air conditioning so I’m acclimated to the heat. It’s pretty simple but it also allows me to keep the HVAC cooling costs to a minimum.