{ warning, the following is a rant.  Leave now if you don't want to see it. }

I'm still, even 24+ hours removed from being on the phone with them, seriously unhappy with the furnace repair people in my area.  Especially the folks that have done regular service for our household.

Why?  Because co-incidentally with the extended power outage at my home compliments of the ice storms that went through the D.C./Baltimore area the furnace seemed to have decided that losing power for all that time is a good reason to quit working.

We had recently had a new control-module installed on the furnace.  It was installed by the folks that will be coming out again "as soon as they can get around to us."  From everything my simple self can tell, the problem with the furnace is directly related to the control module.  The module is supposed to show an LED to indicate status.  Lack of any color on the LED, or lack of any blinking of color on the LED indicates "internal fault" on that module.  Guess what the LED on unit that is installed on my furnace is showing?  If you guessed no color at all, you are a winner.

Now, it could be that the problem is something else entirely.  It could be that there's just some stupid reset that has to be tripped somewhere.  It could be a problem with the thermostat (my responsibility really, it's a programmable thermostat that I installed years ago when replacing the old standard round dial thermostat).  I've done some more simple trouble shooting and seem to be ruling out thermostat problems though.  Which leads back to control module.

I'm not at all happy about this.  For several reasons.  One, because the unit is pretty much BRAND NEW.  It should not be failing like this, not after less than 6 weeks of use.  Two, I'm really upset with the furnace repair places around me.  I understand it's the dead of winter, coldest spell to hit my area in some time (global warming my left nut!), and it's a very busy time for these people, but being told that no one will get to my home until after the weekend -- a weekend predicted to have temps still at freezing or below!! -- is very upsetting.  Especially upsetting because the firm that regularly services our equipment has us in a service contract.  For better pricing on repair calls and a few preventative maintenance checkups (both furnace and A/C) per year that are included in the fees.

Getting NO service on a weekend, and no emergency service after hours sucks rocks.  I understand people need time off, weekends, R&R time, etc.  But I had hoped that the service guys would at least offer some sort of outside hour service.  Telling them your furnace is DEAD should have gotten some response other than "the earliest we can get there is {next week}..."

I have spent most of the time since that call was made hoping that the people that work for the furnace repair firm were without power for far longer than I was.  I hope they are left waiting, and waiting, and waiting for any service they ever have need for.  I hope whatever it is they are waiting for is virtually a life or death matter for someone or something they care for.  (The lack of heat for my home is basically life or death for my pet birds.)  I hope they enjoy their weekend off time from a frigid home with a bunch of ruined food in their refrigerator.  Yup, I'm wishing the best for them.

{ ... and of course I'll probably be in all is forgiven mode after they finally do get my furnace working again, but until then the thought that I'm wasting a ton of money running space heaters just to keep things above freezing is not fun for me.  Especially disconcerting because the money for all of that electricity will just line the pockets of BGE who I'm also unhappy with. }