So this will be the fourth Summer in a row that I’ll be working remotely from home.
Of course, all of this started three years ago when the entire staff was sent home from the zone controlled HVAC of the office.
The pandemic has completely changed the way I do my work and I’m actually quite grateful. But that first Summer, three years ago, was a tough one. There was plenty of adjustment that came with working remotely. For one, I sure missed the zone controlled comfort of the office. I worked in an end of the floor where we had our own thermostat for the five of us with cubicles there. It was brilliant because we all had the same heating and cooling needs. But at home, I couldn’t just crank the air conditioning any way I wanted since we’re paying for it. We live in the deep south and that comes with all kind of hot and humid weather. Prior to the pandemic, we would always program the digital thermostat to be into the 80’s while we were at work. By the time we came home at the end of the day, the heat pump was kicking on to provide a bit more cooling. So that’s what I had to deal with that first Summer. It wasn’t easy but I enjoyed working in shorts and a t-shirt with fans blasting me. Once it became clear that I really wanted to stay working from home, I turned a spare room into a proper home office. And with that came a ductless heat pump for that room alone. This is much better now that I can have the air conditioning that I had back at the office without messing up our HVAC budget.