My husband and I enjoy a “snow bird” lifestyle.
We own two homes and spend the entire winter down south.
We avoid the snow, blizzards, freezing rain and temperatures well into the negative digits. Our house in the north sits empty for six months. This creates some concerns. With sub-zero conditions, there is the fear of damage to furnishings and water pipes freezing and bursting. We are not able to shut off the heat entirely. The house is extremely old and the heating system is downright archaic. We don’t have centralized ductwork and don’t really trust our heating equipment to operate reliably or safely. Because of this, I decided to have a ductless heat pump installed into the kitchen. I had the idea that a brand new heat pump would be dependable and provide sufficient heat to prevent damage. I got the name of a contractor from a neighbor and hired the guy to handle the job. There were all sorts of delays, and he wasn’t able to complete the installation process until after I’d already headed south for the winter. I had asked my neighbor to unlock the door for the contractor and hand over the check I’d made out for payment. When the neighbor sent me photos of the completed installation, I was not happy. The contractor had stretched very ugly pipes across the front of my house. He’d drilled a giant hole in the house and did a very poor job of filling in with caulk. My neighbor also informed me that the ductless unit wouldn’t start up. I proceeded to call, email and text the contractor, but he wouldn’t respond. I ended up spending several thousand dollars on a very ugly decoration. I was finally left with no choice but to try a different HVAC contractor. I found a company that is reputable, licensed, insured and bonded. The technician who inspected the ductless unit told me that it was a very poor quality model, would no way handle temperatures below freezing and was installed improperly.