If you use natural gas to heat or cool your home, get ready for a cold shock. Oregon’s Public Utility Commission was told Tuesday that gas prices are about to go up – a lot.

Natural gas analysts told the commission during a briefing that prices could go up this fall between 15 percent and 40 percent.  Yikes!!!!   http://www.theoutlookonline.com/news/story.php?story_id=121616606620737100

It is hard to think about winter right now, but this is the best time to focus on preparing the home.  Any repairs from damage caused last winter (such as roof repair) should be completed.  The home needs to be secure and ready to survive the temperature change.  At Home Fridays we have spent time this summer repairing roofs (broken tiles, cleaning roofs)  snow barrier replacement, cracked skylights replacement.   Of course this is the time of year for annual maintenance on the furnaces.   We continue to be big fans of routine preventative maintenance.   Here is the Wikipidea description of preventative maintenance.

Preventive maintenance (PM) has the following meanings:

1. The care and servicing by personnel for the purpose of maintaining equipment and facilities in satisfactory operating condition by providing for systematic inspection, detection, and correction of incipient failures either before they occur or before they develop into major defects.
2. Maintenance, including tests, measurements, adjustments, and parts replacement, performed specifically to prevent faults from occurring. 

We have spent many an evening on furnace issues that may have been prevented with annual service.   It is so much easier to spend less then $100 now instead of thousands later if problems arise.  Of course there are no guarentees, but isn’t it worth the effort?