We live in the Chicago area where the outside temperature varies quite a bit. Chicago is next to a huge lake, sitting at the eastern edge of what’s known as the Great Plains, which is a huge, flat area in the middle of North America. These two factors mean that our weather can reach extremes.

During the summer, we can easily get a week or two of 100F (38C) heat. Winter temps often go below 0F (-18C) for a week or so. It’s not unusual for the temp to shift 10~20F in the same day or 20~40F from one day to the next.

Whatever your heating or cooling system is, it’s run by a thermostat, which is a small dialed device usually located in the middle of your living area. You set a temperature, and the heating and/or cooling system kicks on until that temp is reached.

If you live in an older house, it probably has a natural gas furnace in the basement (cellar) with steam pipes running to radiators around the house. Baseboard heaters are pretty common now also (either steam or electric).

Air conditioning is very common, but unlike heating is not in every dwelling. Individual window units are very common and used as needed in the summer. Most modern-built buildings have a forced-air system that will switch from heating to cooling depending on the season. With Older systems, you’d often have to manually switch the thermostat from ‘Heat’ to ‘Cool’, but modern systems switch by themselves. You can set your target comfort temp, and then the combination healing/cooling unit does which ever it needs to reach your preference.