Every year over 20,000 people end up in the emergency room as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning. This colorless, odorless gas is known as the silent killer because it’s essentially undetectable without a carbon monoxide detector.
Carbon monoxide, according to the CDC, is produced by stoves, gas ranges, boilers, furnaces, and fireplaces so it only makes sense that carbon monoxide poisoning rises during the heating months when people are trying to heat their homes. To help keep your home safe, Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning is here with some tips to safety heat your home.
- Place a CO detector on every floor of your home and replace the batteries annually.
- Keep all likely sources of combustion, such as paper, clothing, bedding, or rugs, a minimum of three feet away from furnaces, space heaters, fire places, or stoves.
- Before lighting a fire in the fireplace, make sure you check to verify the chimney damper is open and unclogged.
- Never leave portable heaters or fireplaces unattended. Power off space heaters and make sure all embers in the fireplace are completely extinguished before leaving the area.
- Space heaters should always be situated on the floor, and on a hard, nonflammable surface, like ceramic tile. Keep kids and furbabies away from space heaters.
- When investing in a new space heater, purchase a model that powers off automatically if the heater falls over.
- Don’t use a cooking range to increase the temperature in your home.
- Have all stoves, fireplaces, chimneys, and all types of furnaces professionally inspected and cleaned every year.
The best thing you can do for your heating equipment is to make sure it’s not only ready to keep you warm all winter but also safe, is to call for your furnace tune-up. During your fall tune-up, Service Experts will check to make sure your furnace is operating safely with a full multi-point inspection and cleaning. Call 305-440-1505 today and ask how you can save on a furnace tune-up through November 25th.