Where I live, most people have a second furnace.
During the winter, if you don’t have a second furnace, you will freeze to death before someone can manage to get to your lake household and repair the oil furnace… Winter time starts in early September and lasts until late May or early July. Last winter, I had our heating system thoroughly checked and cleaned, however that didn’t mean I would not have significant problems… My primary oil furnace broke during a blizzard, however by the time I got back to the lake house from work, it was so freezing in the household that I called my sister and asked her to keep the teenagers until I could get the oil furnace repaired or the alternate heating appliance running. I genuinely wanted the household to be warm before our teenagers came into the house. My wife got to the lake house only five minutes after I did, and she went into the garage to get our other oil furnace running! Fortunately, it only took five minutes before we could easily feel the heat coming from the air vents. I was so grateful my wife had gotten to the lake house early that afternoon. I wasn’t sure if I could have switched heating devices on my own. I called my sister and told her I would be over to get the teenagers in about fifteen minutes. We got our heating device running again, and a free lunch out of the deal, however now, all we must do is wait for the HVAC professional to get out her snowmobile and get to our household once the blizzard ends. I can only hope it doesn’t take especially long.