Ever since I was a little kid, I have hated space heaters.
They scare the living daylights out of me.
I had this one in my bedroom when I was little and it looked like a red-eyed monster who was always ready to eat me. The night I saw sparks coming from the space heater, I panicked. I ended up sleeping with my mom while my dad tried to keep the sparks from landing on my bed. I also swore I would never have another space heater in my house. Now that I am grown and I have my own house, I take care of my HVAC system. My furnace is serviced once a year and I change my air filters every month. The thing is that a furnace is a piece of machinery. It isn’t if the furnace is going to break down, but when the furnace was going to break down. My furnace had to break down during the coldest week of the year. I had to do something to keep warm until the HVAC technician showed up. I thought about going to a motel, but I had to be at the house when the HVAC tech showed up. I went to town and I purchased a space heater. I thought the new space heater were much safer so I was willing to give it a try. I should have realized that a space heater is like a window AC unit and it should have its own dedicated outlet. I not only had the space heater in an outlet with another appliance, but it was plugged in with an extension cord. I should have known better, but it wasn’t until I almost caught my house on fire, that it even occurred to me.