Tips to Safely Heat Your Home This Winter

Each year over 20,000 people end up in the hospital due to carbon monoxide poisoning. This odorless and colorless gas is known as the silent killer because it’s practically undetectable without a carbon monoxide detector

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

  • Place a CO detector on each floor of your home and change the batteries annually. 
  • 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 starting a fire in the fireplace, make sure you check to verify the chimney damper is open and unobstructed. 
  • Never leave portable heaters or fireplaces neglected. Shut off space heaters and confirm all embers in the fireplace are totally extinguished before going to bed or leaving home. 
  • Space heaters should always be situated on the floor, and on a hard, incombustible surface, like concrete or tile. Keep children and furbabies away from space heaters. 
  • When investing in a new space heater, buy a model that turns off automatically if the heater tumbles over. 
  • Never use a cooking range to increase the temperature in your home. 
  • Have fireplaces, chimneys, gas or oil furnaces, and coal and wood stoves professionally checked and cleaned yearly. 

The ideal thing you can do for your heating equipment is to be sure it’s not only all set to keep your family warm all winter but also safe, is to schedule your heating tune-up. During your heating tune-up, Stevenson Service Experts will check to ensure your furnace is operating safely with a complete multi-point inspection and cleaning. Call 614-334-3192 today and learn how you can save on a heating tune-up through November 25th.