I went on a business trip a few weeks ago and it honestly changed everything for me. I have never really cared one way or another about heating and cooling. I just figured that if it’s cold, I’ll run the heater, and if it’s hot, I’ll run the air conditioning. However, I didn’t really think it mattered too much whether or not I had the fanciest equipment. I have an oil furnace that I utilize in the winter and a few window air conditioning units for the summer. This is what I was used to, so I never really thought about upgrading and didn’t think it was necessary. When I went on my business trip, I was out of town for about three weeks. I stayed in a nice apartment downtown with state of the art heating and cooling. I was able to adjust the temperature using a smart thermostat, and I could even use zone control to heat and cool rooms to different temperatures. Since I didn’t have to worry about paying utility bills, I played around with these features quite a bit. I cranked the air conditioning using the smart thermostat when I knew I’d be home in a few hours. I’d make the living room warm enough to wear shorts, but I made the bedroom cool enough to wrap up in some blankets at night. I was comfortable and enjoying the features so much that when I came home, I was extremely disappointed. I had gotten used to all of the fancy features. While I don’t see the need to replace my perfectly functioning furnace, I think it might be time to switch to central air conditioning rather than windows. I have an appointment with an HVAC technician for a consultation and price estimates.