On Saturday 12-21-2013 at 6:30 PM my furnace stopped working. The heat exchanger is cracked on a 10 year old Payne/Carrier. The outside temp at the time was 10 above zero. Saturday evening the temp dropped to -14F Sunday another day of 10 above and Sunday night -15. I have a couple of electric heaters and my propane fish house heater working overtime to prevent plumbing freeze up and keep it tolerable in the house. I left for work today and gave the dog explicit instructions on what to do if one or both of the two heaters or wiring failed and it started to either smoke (a prelim to catching on fire) or gave up. I was gone for 7 hours and the temp dropped to 62 from the 80 degrees I had it up to when I left.
This my friends is a testament to the work I have done on insulation, new windows and doors to seal up and make my house efficient in the winter. My new furnace arrives on Thursday and I should have it installed and up and running on Thursday evening, I hope. Tonight -18 predicted and Tuesday night 5 above. Wednesday night back to -12 I hope my house survives. I think I can do it.
Preventing hot tubs from freezing is easy compared to this.