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NORWALK, Conn. It will be so much easier now for Kathy Lane to keep her family's Norwalk home cool this summer, through the winter and into the foreseeable future. That's right, their home needs to be cool in the winter.
Lane's husband, the father of their 2½-year-old triplets, has a traumatic brain injury as the result of carbon monoxide poisoning. His body cannot regulate heat. "It can be the dead of winter and I burn myself in the shower," said Robert "Eddie" Lane. "My body doesn't know when it's hot."
Heat can trigger a host of other symptoms, so the family has had an air conditioning unit in a window in every room. That is a thing of the past, though, now that Kathy has won Gault Energy's 2012 "Home Sweat Home" central air conditioning contest.
A brand-new Trane 13 Seer high-efficiency system is being installed this week in the Lane's four-bedroom Cape-style home on West Cedar Street. "It's just amazing," Kathy said. "I can't even put it into words. It's such a relief to know that he's going to be comfortable."
Kathy works as an assistant principal at Stamford's Rogers International School. Eddie cannot work. Eleven years ago, he was exposed to toxic levels of carbon monoxide while working as a mechanic at a car dealership. The poisoning went undiagnosed for months.
"He's got 37 different symptoms that randomly pop up but the heat, that triggers everything," Kathy said. "If his body gets overheated, other symptoms pop up because of it. To keep him cool is the big thing. I layer. The kids layer. We have blankets all over the house. We work through it."
Eddie's debilitating symptoms include atrial fibrillation and severe vision, speech, memory, stomach and balance issues. If he gets too hot, he might get a migraine headache or heatstroke.
Kathy says she heard about Gault's contest as she was driving to work. It was two or three days before the deadline to submit an essay to try to win an air-conditioning system. That evening everything fell into place the kids were in bed, the chores were done and she remembered the contest. "I swear it was fate," she said. "My little angel was telling me, 'Enter, enter,' reminding me about it."
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