Tips to Safely Heat Your Home This Winter

Each year over 20,000 people go to the ER due to carbon monoxide poisoning. This odorless and colorless gas is referred to as the silent killer because it’s essentially undetectable without a carbon monoxide detector.

Carbon monoxide, as specified by the CDC, is produced by fireplaces, boilers, furnaces, stoves, and gas ranges so it only makes sense that carbon monoxide poisoning climbs during the winter months when people are trying to heat their homes. To help keep your home safe, Stevenson Service Experts is here with a few tips to safety heat your home.

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

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

• Before lighting a fire in the fireplace, be sure to check to confirm the chimney damper is open and unobstructed.

• Never leave portable heaters or fireplaces unwatched. Shut off space heaters and ensure all embers in the fireplace are totally extinguished before leaving the area.

• Space heaters should always be positioned on the floor, and on a hard, nonflammable surface, like porcelain tile. Keep children and animals away from space heaters.

• When buying a new space heater, purchase a model that powers off automatically if the heater tumbles over.

• Do not use a cooking range to heat your home.

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

The best thing you can do for your heating equipment is to make sure it’s not only up to the task of keeping your family warm all winter but also safe, is to call for your fall tune-up. During your fall tune-up, Stevenson Service Experts will check to ensure your heating system is operating safely with a full multi-point inspection and cleaning. Call 614-334-3192 today and ask how you can save on a heating tune-up through November 25th.