You should give home safety at least as much attention as you do home efficiency and lowering energy costs. Electrical, fire and chemical hazards are likely lurking in your home – unless you take steps to boost home safety. Use this checklist to evaluate how safe your home is, and then make needed improvements.
Control electrical hazards by:
- Checking all of the cords to home appliances, electronics, etc. If they’re damaged, frayed or have exposed wiring, dispose of them.
- Promoting safety. If you notice that appliances smoke or spark when they run, repair them or throw them out.
- Checking all outlets in the home, ensuring that you limit the number of devices plugged into each one
- Covering any wires in outlets and switches that are exposed
Manage chemical hazards by:
- Tossing out any cleaning solutions or other hazardous chemicals that you no longer need
- Once you decide on what to keep, storing the remaining chemicals in a space with good ventilation, giving fumes a chance to exit the home
- Storing these items properly, by keeping them away from any heating sources, gas-powered equipment or open flames
Eliminate fire hazards by:
- Learning the materials that will quickly fuel a fire, including old furniture, paper or clothing
- Giving away or throwing out stored items that you don’t need
- Properly locating stored items you want to keep. Ideally, you should store boxes of clothing or paper, old furniture and the like far away from electrical equipment or appliances powered by gas, oil or propane.
- Keeping the yard free of fire hazards. If something throws off a spark into the yard, or a small fire starts, old grass clippings, dead leaves and other yard debris will quickly give fuel to the fire.
- Avoiding contact between draperies and furniture and candles or space heaters
If you’re getting serious about home safety, or would like to schedule a free home consultation to evaluate your home’s efficiency, please contact us at Mowery Heating, Cooling and Plumbing today. We’ve served homeowners in the Indianapolis area since 1970, and are happy to continue our legacy of quality customer service and superior HVAC services to homeowners in the community.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Brownsburg, Indiana and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).
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