My house my condo is in was built over a hundred years ago and not ever got outfitted with conventional air ductwork.
- This makes temperature control a big challenge for us, but living way up north, in the country, the extreme chilly weather necessitates a powerful furnace.
We make a go of it, do the best we can. In the upstairs study room, the people I was with and I have to rely on a ventless, natural gas heater. Because the furnace has no vents, it creates an oily residue on the windows in the study room. I have a pair of beautiful, antique French doors separating the study room from the kitchen. Each of these doors is set with twelve small windows. Cleaning these windows is a laborious, time-consuming and frustrating process. I’ve observed that the windows rarely need to be cleaned while in the warm season. In the Winter season, they are constantly clouded over and require a thorough scrubbing. The furnace is a single-stage unit, which means that it can only operate at that one speed. When the temperature in the study room drops, the furnace blasts only at maximum capacity equipment it reaches the thermostat setting. Then the furnace has to shut down and cool the inner gears and workings with a fan that blows cold air. The repeating of this on and off cycling causes unpleasant temperature fluctuations. A ventless furnace is also unquestionably sensitive to dust, which surprised me. The filters need to be washed at least once a week. If there is any debris clogging the old air filters, a blinking purple warning light comes out. When the warning light starts to show up, the furnace will no longer shut on and off. It will only keep blasting high speed heating and I worry that it might overheat or become a fire hazard.