In my house, the heater basically stops working every year and my dad put some like “bandaid” solution over it with manipulating some wiring, idk what they do. But like, every year, the heater would stop working like several times throughout the winter and constanly needs to be fixed. But this year it just stopped working completely. Like I google it and those heaters are like $2000 to $2500 brand new, so yea, I get it, parents want to save money, but like, having the heat stop few times a year feels like living in a developing country tbh 😓. So now I’m basically just relying on those portable heater things to stay warm, and my cat is feeling too cold so she’s staying in bedrooms most of the time because its where the portable heaters are at, when she normally just wanders the entire house.
Down here we just have heat pump systems, often without any dedicated heating elements. So in the summer they work by displacing heat out of the house, and in winter are doing the opposite. But can’t work to get the house actually warm if it’s freezing outside, just warmer than outside. And in summer, can’t make it cold inside, but again, makes it colder than outside. It’s enough for most days of the year.
Anyway - these units need twice annual maintenance, plus regular repairs, devices that heat or cool just have to work so hard so much of the time. You can’t neglect that maintenance. Either hire someone or learn how to do it, because it has to be done.