Preparing your Alice, Texas, home for any season is important. But winter brings some potential hazards that aren’t present during other times of the year. To keep your home and family safe during the coldest months, follow these three home safety precautions:
Schedule HVAC Maintenance
The first thing you should do for a safe holiday season is to schedule routine HVAC maintenance. Ideally, this visit should occur before you turn your heating system on. If you’ve missed that window and your furnace seems to be doing fine, it’s still worth scheduling a tune-up. A professional service technician can spot and repair problems in your system early. As a result, you’ll avoid major breakdowns and costly repairs.
Keep Kids Away From Heat Sources
If you plan to use any supplemental heat sources this winter, such as a fireplace or space heater, establish a kid-free zone around them. You’ll want to keep kids — and anything flammable — at least 3 feet away. Before the season starts, have your chimney cleaned and inspected by a professional. To prevent fires, use a sturdy firescreen to block sparks. Turn off space heaters when you leave the room or go to bed.
Hang Your Holiday Lights Carefully
Finally, be careful about which holiday lights you buy and how you use them. Make sure any lights you use outside are rated for exterior use and plugged into a GFI outlet. All lights should have been tested in a lab for safety, and you should throw damaged lights out. If you plan to hang lights on a real Christmas tree, remember that fresh trees are less likely to catch fire than those that are already shedding. Therefore, you should always turn your tree lights off before going to bed.
Safety always comes first, especially in the winter. To schedule your winter HVAC maintenance visit, call Bodine-Scott at (361) 883-9900. We can help you with all of your heating service, repair and installation needs this winter.
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