Staying warm during the winter is becoming one of the biggest concerns for homeowners across the country right now — but staying safe is just as important when it comes to home heating systems. Here are just a few tips that will help you make your heating system as safe and efficient as possible:
- Keeping air vents and air filters is a very important safety tip for any home heating system (although it’s just as important during the summer, too). Dirty air filters and clogged air vents will cause your HVAC unit to run more often than it should, making it more likely to overheat or ruin individual parts through too much use. Additionally, the air in your home will be filled with dust and pollen particles, which could trigger allergic reactions and are incredibly dangerous for anyone with asthma or other respiratory problems. Although changing the air filter in your system is a simple task that you can (and should) do on your own, it’s also important to bring in the experts from your local HVAC repair services for reglar system inspections, cleaning, and repairs.
- Make sure to keep young children at a safe distance from any home heating system equipment or air conditioning units; many large pieces of equipment for home heating and cooling systems will contain fluids that are toxic if ingested. If you rely primarily on wood-burning ovens or stoves, it’s even more important to set up a “kid-free zone” around the equipment to keep everyone safe.
- Speaking of wood-burning stoves, if you use any indoor home heating options (or even ovens for cooking), it’s important to make sure that you keep the stove and the area around it very clean. Fireplaces should always have protective screens to keep embers from jumping out of the fireplace, and it’s important to make sure that the chimney is clear so that smoke can escape.
- Although this might seem like it belongs in the fireplace safety bullet above, it’s also important to keep any vegetation away from heating and cooling appliances, even if the risk of having a plant catch fire doesn’t seem as obvious as if you were to place one in front of a fire. If your plants are near any heating vents or hot equipment, they’re more likely to dry out — not only will you have a dead plant on your hands, but you’ll have an extremely flammable pot of dry leaves that could burst into flames within seconds if heated up too much.
So now we’re asking you for some help! Do you have any tips on how to make sure that a home heating system is running safely? Any questions related to HVAC repair or maintenance problems? Be sure to leave your advice and/or questions with us in the comments section!
