Tips to Safely Heat Your Home This Winter

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

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

• Install a CO detector on every floor of your home and replace the batteries yearly.

• 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 igniting a fire in the fireplace, be sure to check to ensure the chimney damper is open and unobstructed.

• Do not leave portable heaters or fireplaces unattended. Turn off space heaters and be sure all embers in the fireplace are fully extinguished before leaving either heating source unattended.

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

• When investing in a new space heater, buy a model that powers 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 annually.

The ultimate 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 set-up your furnace tune-up. During your fall tune-up, Church Services will check to make sure your furnace is operating safely with a total multi-point inspection and cleaning. Call 713-396-3760 today and find out how you can save on a furnace tune-up through November 25th.