What heats your house, and what happens when it stops.
Most people know the thermostat, not the system behind it
You set a temperature. The system brings the house to that temperature. You do not think about it again until the house is too hot, too cold, or the bill arrives. That level of interaction works fine in normal life. But it leaves a gap in understanding that shows up at exactly the wrong time: when the system fails, when a technician asks you a question, when you are deciding whether to replace equipment, or when the fuel supply is interrupted.
This module fills that gap. Not by turning you into an HVAC technician, but by making sure you can answer a set of basic questions about your own home that an alarming number of households cannot: What type of system heats your home? What fuel does it use? How old is it? When was it last serviced? Do you have any backup?
Fuel is the foundation
Everything about a heating system follows from the fuel it uses, and the fuel determines what a disruption looks like:
- Natural gas: piped in, always available unless the main is shut off
- Propane: stored in a tank on your property, you schedule delivery
- Heating oil: stored in a tank, you schedule delivery
- Electricity: powers heat pumps, baseboard, and space heaters
- Wood or pellets: you supply, store, and maintain the stove or fireplace
A household on natural gas has a different vulnerability from one on propane or oil, which have delivery schedules that can be disrupted by weather or supply. A household on an electric heat pump depends entirely on grid power unless it has a backup. Knowing which category you are in, and whether you have any alternative, is the kind of information that matters most when you need it most.
The household that knows its heating system, its fuel, and its backup option has already answered the most important question a cold night can ask.
What the inventory records
The reading covers how the major residential heating and cooling systems work at the level an owner needs to understand: what the equipment does, what fuel it needs, what maintenance it requires, and where the owner-maintenance boundary falls. The action step asks you to identify every system that heats or cools your home, record the type, fuel, approximate age, and last service date for each, and note your thermostat type, your primary fuel dependency, and whether you have any backup heat source. That inventory becomes the heating-and-cooling layer of your Utility Profile.
The reading for this module
This is the core reading for the module. Take it with your earlier work beside you.
Inventory your heating and cooling systems.
Identify every system that heats or cools your home. For each one, record the type, the fuel it uses, its approximate age, and the last service date. Note your thermostat type and current settings. Record what fuel you depend on most and whether you have any backup heat source.