Just like everyone else, my energy expenses shot up with the rate of inflation. More than anything else, energy costs have been a huge pain for those who are already under financial burdens. I didn’t expect to see gas prices up past $4 a gallon in my area, but that’s where we’re at. These are prices I really haven’t seen since I was in high school right at the height of the War on Terror. I got my driver’s license during this time and the average price per gallon in my city was roughly $3.80 for months at a time. Thankfully the price on gas dropped in the years following this and leading up to the COVID-19 Pandemic. I remember seeing gas down below $2 again for a period of time in 2014, which surprised me greatly. I wish we could have prices like that again, but I understand the issues that have happened after the start of the pandemic and how that has affected the cost of fuel. That’s why I decided to ditch my fuel burning furnace and get a much more energy-efficient heat pump. I live in a region that rarely sees temperatures drop below 30 degrees, so there are only rare instances where I could even imagine using an emergency heat source. This is much different than merely having a supplemental heat source that you use in the event of a power outage or a system break down. That’s what my wood stove is for! I’ll use it as an emergency heat source too if it ever gets too cold outside to operate the heat pump, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.