Rick Miller checked the sump pump and back up pump and found both to be in good working order. He checked the thermostat which turned out to have one leaking AA battery and consequently would probably have caused the heating system to stop working soon. This might have resulted in an unnecessary and costly service call if we did not think of checking the batteries in the thermostat. We installed two new AA batteries and the thermostat is fine. Rick also found and removed a short piece of partially scorched plastic tubing which somehow had fallen under the heat exchanger unit of the furnace. He showed us this piece of tubing which we have kept as a reminder that this little piece of plastic could have created a potentially hazardous situation for us, considering that it was already scorched in two places. We appreciate Rick's excellent service and are very glad that we scheduled this service call! Thank you, American Weathermakers!