How to Keep Your Family Safe and Your Furnace Well Maintained During the Heating Season

We often take our furnaces for granted. They provide our homes with heat and ensure our families warmth during cold winter days and nights. Unfortunately, not properly maintaining your furnace can lead to unsafe conditions. If you haven't paid much attention to your furnace lately, we suggest reading the safety tips below.

• Keep the area around your furnace clutter free. Stacked boxes or other flammable materials are best kept as far away from your furnace as possible. Storing objects, especially easily combustible items, near your furnace is a huge fire risk. Keeping the area clear is the only way to guarantee you are not creating a fire hazard in your home.
•  Only trust a professional to install your new furnace. Although DIY projects are in right now, there are still many home endeavors you should not try yourself and installing a new furnace is definitely on that list. Hiring a professional who understands every intricate part of your new heating system is essential to a safe and proper installation.
• Install and maintain your carbon monoxide detectors. Known as the invisible killer, carbon monoxide is an odorless and colorless poisonous gas. Undetected leaks in your home, due to a faulty furnace, can have devastating consequences on your family. Installing detectors throughout your house is the only way to know if a leak has occurred. We recommend having a detector installed near your furnace and on every floor of your home. It is also crucial to replace the batteries in your carbon monoxide detectors every year, and be sure to test them once a month to confirm they are working properly.
• Schedule an annual furnace inspection. An inspection performed by a HVAC technician at the start of the heating season can alert you to big and small issues with your furnace. While there are numerous benefits to having your furnace inspected, the safety of your family is by far the most important.

Ignoring unusual smells and strange noises coming from you furnace is never a safe or smart decision. If you are experiencing either situation or you simply want to schedule a yearly furnace inspection, please contact New England Cooling Towers, Inc today to make an appointment.