My mum had been away at a work conference for about a week.
This was when the last lockdown was lifted.
I had anxiety about leaving the house and to overcome it, I had started going to the backyard or the neighborhood park in the early mornings or late evenings when there were not a lot of people. I was watching some online videos when I thought of pranking my mum when she came back. This was just to bring back some fun to my life. I came up with a plan to use the regulator for the prank. Mum loved our whole home heating system. She had invested a lot in the hybrid heating and the most recent heating device, the heated floors that were just in the washrooms and in the basement. The HVAC contractor had recently run a maintenance check on the fireplace mum had built in the sitting area. The prank was to use the voice-controlled programmable thermostat to lower the temperatures so she would think there was a problem with the two devices. Since mum was in the sitting area, I lowered the temperatures of the gas fireplace first and moved to the hybrid heating system. Mum got so cold that she was about to contact the HVAC professional for help with indoor comfort when I turned on the heat again. After a while, I reduced the temperature. The yoyo effect got mum calling the neighbor to help provide the required heating and cooling services. When the HVAC techs mentioned that they were headed to the provider with the request to purchase a ductless multi-split unit, we were a little surprised as we had recently replaced our unit. The prank worked but I got grounded for it.