We were thankful for the warmth.
I live just far enough south that we never see snow or temperatures below freezing. The winters are brief but the weather gets chilly enough that a heating system is required. The summers are extremely hot and humid. For the majority of the year, the weather is moderate, and we’re able to open the windows. My husband and I moved from up north to this location. We were excited to get away from excessively long, snowy and brutal winters. We were accustomed to temperatures well below zero and feet of snow on the ground. The appliances in our new home had not been updated in a long time. We needed to replace the refrigerator, stove and water heater. There was no washer and dryer. The packaged heating/cooling system was obviously old. The unit was huge, extremely noisy and the outer cabinet was rusting. We moved into the home during the fall. The first winter set records for cold temperatures. Our ancient heater struggled to keep up with demand. The house often felt chilly and the heater sometimes froze up. We finally invested into a small electric heater for the living room. The heater resembled a real wood stove with a faux flame that created a bit of ambience. We were thankful for the warmth. That summer, the packaged unit worked surprisingly well in cooling mode. It managed to keep the entire house perfectly comfortable on the hottest days and most humid nights. Because of so many other household expenses, we ended up keeping that packaged heating/cooling unit for three years.