It’s never a good day when you go to buy groceries and your credit card is rejected at the checkout counter.
In my experience, that’s time to panic and wonder what could have possibly gone wrong.
This doesn’t happen to me often, but it did happen to me last month without any warning. I had no idea what could have gone wrong, because there should have been plenty of cash in my bank account. When I got home and checked my account details, I found out pretty quickly what the problem was. My energy bill for the last 3 months had been four times higher than usual. Because I had my energy bill set on auto pay, it was automatically deducted the cash from my account without me noticing. Clearly, there was something going wrong with my home appliances to necessitate such energy expenditure. I started investigating around the house, and started at the HVAC system. I changed out the air filter on my furnace and air conditioner first and foremost. After that, I took a rough look at the furnace and AC condenser for any obvious signs of damage. I checked out the thermostat wiring to make sure that there were no issues with the connections to the heating and cooling equipment. I finally gave in and called out at the local HVAC dealership for assistance with my sleuthing. When the heating and cooling technician arrived, he quickly investigated the air ducts and came back with a solid answer. It was no wonder my HVAC system was working quadruple time, there was a nest of rodents completely blocking the air duct.