Each year over 20,000 people end up in the emergency room 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, as confirmed by the CDC, is put off by stoves, gas ranges, boilers, furnaces, and fireplaces so it only makes sense that carbon monoxide poisoning rises during the winter months when people are trying to heat their homes. To help keep your home safe, BW/Cook Service Experts is here with a few tips to safety heat your home.
- Install a CO detector on every floor of your home and change the batteries yearly.
- Keep all possible sources of combustion, such as bedding, paper, or clothing, a minimum of three feet away from fireplaces, furnaces, stoves, or space heaters.
- Before igniting a fire in the fireplace, always check to ensure the chimney damper is open and unobstructed.
- Don’t leave portable heaters or fireplaces unwatched. Shut off space heaters and confirm 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, incombustible surface, like porcelain tile. Keep kids and pets away from space heaters.
- When investing in a new space heater, invest in a model that turns off automatically if the heater falls over.
- Don’t use a stove to heat your home.
- Have wood and coal stoves, fireplaces, chimneys and gas or oil furnaces professionally checked and cleaned annually.
The ideal thing you can do for your heating system is to make sure it’s not only all set to keep your home warm all winter but also safe, is to call for your heating tune-up. During your furnace tune-up, BW/Cook will check to ensure your furnace is operating safely with a full multi-point inspection and cleaning. Call 574-218-6404 today and ask how you can save on a fall tune-up through November 25th.