Tips to Safely Heat Your Home This Winter

Every year over 20,000 people end up in the ER due to carbon monoxide poisoning. This odorless and colorless gas is called the silent killer because it’s essentially undetectable without a carbon monoxide detector.

Carbon monoxide, as confirmed by the CDC, is put off by fireplaces, boilers, furnaces, stoves, and gas ranges so it only makes sense that carbon monoxide poisoning increases during the colder months when people are trying to warm their homes. To help keep your home safe, Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning is here with a few tips to safety keep your home heated.

• Put in a CO detector on each floor of your home and swap out the batteries every year.

• Keep all potential sources of combustion, such as bedding, paper, or clothing, a distance over three feet away from furnaces, space heaters, fire places, or stoves.

• Before igniting a fire in the fireplace, always check to confirm the chimney damper is open and unclogged.

• Don’t leave portable heaters or fireplaces alone. Shut off space heaters and be 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, fire-resistant surface, like concrete or tile. Keep young ones and animals away from space heaters.

• When investing in a new space heater, invest in a model that turns off automatically if the heater tumbles over.

• Do not use a stove to heat your home.

• Have wood and coal stoves, fireplaces, chimneys and gas or oil furnaces professionally examined and cleaned yearly.

The ideal thing you can do for your heating equipment is to make sure it’s not only up to the task of keeping you warm all winter but also safe, is to schedule your fall tune-up. During your heating tune-up, Service Experts will check to be sure your heating equipment is operating safely with a total multi-point inspection and cleaning. Call 587-404-0790 today and learn how you can save on a heating tune-up through November 25th.