When most homeowners think about winter home safety, they think about keeping their walkways clear and being careful around fireplaces. These are good precautions, but there are a few more that should be added to your list.
Although the best time to do a furnace inspection is before you use it for the first time during the cold season, it's still a good idea to schedule a maintenance visit even if you have already turned on the heat. A maintenance inspection accomplishes three things:
For example, loose or worn electrical connections can be a fire hazard. During a maintenance check-up, the technician will test and tighten all electrical connections. Loose or leaky gas lines can also be a safety hazard, as can a cracked heat exchanger. When the heat exchanger develops a crack, it releases carbon monoxide into the air. This can make your family sick or even be deadly if it goes on too long. That brings us to our next point:
While you have some carbon monoxide producers that work in your house year-round, some get more use in the winter. Common carbon monoxide (CO) producers include:
In particular, furnaces and wood-burning stoves get more use in the winter, so your chances of CO poisoning go up. Symptoms of CO poisoning include headache, nausea, and confusion. CO is considered a "silent killer" because you can't see or smell it, and too much exposure can be deadly. Your best defense? Install a CO detector. Opt for a battery-operated model to avoid it losing power during an outage. CO detectors work like smoke detectors but are designed to alert you to carbon monoxide in your environment. Need more help with the winter home safety precautions for your Hampton Roads-area home? Contact Russell's Heating & Cooling today. Our goal is to help educate our customers in Chesapeake, Virginia and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about winter home safety and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Guide or call us at 757-750-1831. Credit/Copyright Attribution: “openclipart-vectors/Pixabay”