I was anxious to move south and leave behind the long, cold and snowy winters in the north. I visited different areas around Tampa and eventually found a small house in Lakeland. I was delighted to purchase a lakefront property. The home was affordable because it had been left empty for several years. Everything was outdated and in need of maintenance. The previous owners had gutted one of the bathrooms and left it torn apart. There were no gutters on the house, several of the windows were broken, and it smelled musty. I was a bit concerned thad the heat pump looked rather old and was extremely loud. I expected to be forced to replace it within a year. However, the unit ran just fine for several years. It was in the middle of July, when the outdoor temperature in Lakeland was in the mid nineties, when I noticed warm air pouring from the vents. When I called an HVAC contractor for repair, he found a very small refrigerant leak. It cost me one hundred dollars to have him recharge the refrigerant. Since I was expecting to need a whole new system, I was relieved. There was no way of knowing how long the repair would last. Less than a year later, warm air was once again flowing from the vents. I was unwilling to pay one hundred dollars in repairs every year to keep an outdated system going. I invested into a brand new heat pump. While the cost was significant, the new heat pump is far more energy efficient and has trimmed my monthly bills.