Just sent you an email. Kris

What I have found is that once your RP gets to have a trunk that is a little thicker, maybe 3" to 5" around, you need to use the small incandescent (NOT LEDs) Christmas lights (mini size). Get a longer one and just bunch it all up around the base of the tree (maybe 6" up) then wrap it around with the painter's drop cloth like I mentioned before (it will go around like 4 times). Each mini light will not put off hardly any warmth, but together, it will warm it under the drop cloth to keep it around 60 to 70 degrees around the base. (you can tell by reaching your hand inside- big difference, but not enough to burn the tree). Yes, the thinner top branches will freeze if it gets cold but it will all grow back and grow back fast in the spring. If you want to give them a jump start, leave those on all winter and through the last frost and you will see new branches growing off the bottom of the tree (because of the warmth) up to a month or 45 days early, which will give them a jump start on growth and they will get much thicker and taller. Mine started growing in late February this year as opposed to April! This works great. Make sure you grab some outside extension cords and either tape the connections up with tape to waterproof when raining in the winter (after all, after it rains in the winter, that is when it gets very COLD) or get some of those water proof gaskets for outside lighting/cords. That will keep the breaker or GFCI from popping at the wrong time and everything freezing. One other thing- with RPs, do NOT over mulch it. You can put plenty of mulch as long as it is not right against the trunk, otherwise you risk the trunk losing it's bark at the bottom and the tree will die. You can't bury these at the base or they will die. Also do NOT put too much fish emulsion. I used too much on one of mine that looked 100% healthy and it died right after. It sprouted a bunch of times and then the srpouts just died. (I some extra cups of fish emulsion which I had left over and and thought, why not use a couple of cups on this one?- wrong!) If you use exactly the amount on the instructions, you will be fine and then rinse afterwards with water. I have three left from the original lot and they freeze back on top each year but get bigger and bigger each year. Also, in the spring, wait for a month or so to trim the dead stuff off. At that point, you will be able to tell what is actually alive and what needs to be trimmed. If you scrape the bark with your fingernail and it is green underneath, it is still alive. Personally, I just wait and trim above the last new sprouts coming from the branches. That way I don't cut anything off by accident that is still alive. You can also cut the green branches off in sections of about 6 to 8 inches and just stick them into a pot right side up and they will grow new plants. So easy and they are already much thicker and stonger than growing from seed, Give it a try- so easy! Royal Poincianas are like no other tree so they are truly worth the effort. So beautiful with their filtered light and soft, fernlike leaves and incredibly brilliant red/orange beautiful color when in bloom.

My advice - this actually happened last year: unless it absolutely can’t wait until March or later… cancel and wait. We had a squirrel issue and the contractor took all of the insulation from our attic (Jan 15, 2023) and due to a misunderstanding it was over a week between removal and our scramble to find someone to put new insulation in. It did cause a crack in our garage drywall although no issues inside. We live in IL so strongly recommend waiting. The real issue was the house having a blasting furnace for a full week with under 10 degree temps. Frankly it wasn’t warm the entire time.

I doubt that Charles, because there's time Joanne has too much heat as well as times when it's not enough. Still waiting for the new thermostats. For the past few days the two units have been mostly running at 2 degrees over setpoint with the occasional too-little heat. Temps outside warmish for this time of year. To me it points to a sensor related issue. Whether this is by design is hard to say (we're discussing this in a forum board where some read and some don't -- you know who you are). Joanne, I know you said previously that they added refrigerant to the system and so if they did that (depending on how, what and why?) As temperature increases outdoors an over charge (even a few ounces) can put some monkey's with wrenches inside the unit. It's a critically charged machine. (laymen's terms it isn't going to work if the refrigerant charge is wrong on a critically charged machine.) So other times when it's colder points to a sensor related problem, warmer something else happens -- that may or may not be refrigerant charge related? The way to determine is to remove all refrigerant and weight it, then put back what is needed by weight. I mention this because you said they have used heads that they've replaced. If they do not understand refrigerant charge requirements for critically charged machines, they will probably never fix it. Sizing related issues? the unit would just short cycle if too big OR too small run all the time with no off cycle and not enough heat when colder out. (This particular unit capable down to 5F) If you have a room that requires exactly 17,000 BTU of heat maybe they make heads for 15,000 BTU or 18,000 BTU --- Pick one, either one will be either undersized or over sized. Why the sizing game or the blame thereof isn't quite what you think it is. The closer you look at sizing, the more it becomes apparent the unit isn't really "properly sized".