Tips to Safely Heat Your Home This Winter

Each year over 20,000 people end up in the hospital as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning. The odorless, colorless 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 fireplaces, boilers, furnaces, stoves, and gas ranges so it only makes sense that carbon monoxide poisoning increases during the heating months when people are trying to warm their homes. To help keep you safe, Stevenson Service Experts is here with a couple 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 fireplaces, furnaces, stoves, or space heaters. 
  • Before lighting a fire in the fireplace, make sure you check to ensure the chimney damper is open and unobstructed. 
  • Don’t leave portable heaters or fireplaces alone. Turn off space heaters and confirm all embers in the fireplace are totally extinguished before leaving either heating source unattended. 
  • Space heaters should always be situated on the floor, and on a hard, nonflammable surface, like concrete or tile. Keep young ones and furbabies away from space heaters. 
  • When buying a new space heater, invest in a model that turns off automatically if the heater falls over. 
  • Never use a oven to heat 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 your home warm all winter but also safe, is to schedule your furnace tune-up. During your fall tune-up, Stevenson Service Experts will check to ensure your heating equipment is operating safely with a full multi-point inspection and cleaning. Call 614-334-3192 today and learn how you can save on a fall tune-up through November 25th.