Crippled Furnace, Record Freezing Temps and No Sleep

My health seems to be recovering over the past day or two, finally, so that is good.  I feel like I should be much farther along in my recovery at this point but the past day or two have seen a nice improvement in my overall health.  Unfortunately, we have other problems that are cutting into our sleep though which won't help my health at all.

We learned recently that our furnace is on borrowed time now...  at the perfect wrong time considering the current frigid weather.  We spent around $800 just to hold us over through this heating season but the furnace is not running well.  Replacing the furnace in winter is rough because we would be without heat for at least a day.  If other parts need to be ordered, we could be without heat for more than a day.  That simply won't work in the dead of winter so we're trying to just make it through this heating season before we tackle installing a new furnace.  

The temperatures have plunged well into sub-zero territory.  To make this even worse, the wind is howling steadily outside.  We can hear the roar of the wind passing over our house as it races across Kneeland Flats.  Fortunately, we sit behind some trees which block most of that wind down near the ground but it is still windy enough to cause significant wind chills.  As we lie in bed, we can hear the wind howling like a racing train overhead.  

I didn't get much sleep last night.  I was worried about the furnace conking out again so I was constantly listening for problems as the furnace cycled through each cycle every 10 minutes or so.  I think the furnace is cycling through about five or six cycles every hour because it is so cold outside.  There was about a 100° difference between inside the house and outside!  Our old crippled furnace just can't handle that anymore.

We have actually closed off parts of the house that have no plumbing so we don't need to heat them.  This will help the furnace slightly, hopefully.  

Naturally, we've been following the weather very closely lately.  Below is a screenshot from The Weather Channel showing the conditions in nearby Burlington.  Actually, Sheila shared a video yesterday of the frigid rough conditions on Lake Champlain which is the Burlington area.  The video shows rough seas, blowing spray, fog and a water spout!  

Below is a photo of our own weather station here in the house.  Wind chill was at -37° last night.  We also had a difficult time keeping the humidity up inside the house...  22% is rough on the throat and sinuses.  We have a big stock pot of water simmering on the stove.  During the daytime, we can get the humidity level up to around 30% which is more comfortable.  The colder temperatures and high winds make this more difficult at night though as can be seen on our weather station.  Even with the moisture level in the house so low, our windows are still completely covered in ice...

WeatherBug was showing similar conditions for our town...

Nearby Mount Washington was on the cusp of breaking an all-time record yesterday evening...  I just checked their website and it does appear as though the all-time record has been broken!  They dropped to -47°, wind 115 mph gusting to 135 mph, with a wind chill of -112°.  It should be stated that wind chills are only calculated in winds up to 110 mph so...

Of note in the following image captured last night is the wind at 93 mph gusting to 108 mph, plunging the wind chill to -106°...  apparently, conditions worsened last night.

Things should warm up to around 0° today and then stay near there through the night.  Tomorrow we have a heatwave coming through with temperatures in the 30s and then up to 40° by later in the week.  That will give our furnace a much needed break!

I also hope my health continues to improve and recover.  This recovery has been slow and intermittent while seesawing into worsening health.