This is really awesome. It seems the heat from the laptop really served as a heater for you.
You handled the heater problem very well, and Google really came in handy.
For those who have heaters, and would probably like to solve some of their heater problems themselves and save some cost, I know of a site that has close to 21 heater problems and how to solve them. It has really come In handy for me for sometime now. The website is http://www.home-repair-central.com/electric-hot-water-heater-troubleshooting.html
You dad was really proud of you, his son being a real man. Kool