If you are like other homeowners, you have placed your furnace in the basement or any other room that you rarely visit. Although, the furnace is often out of sight, it doesn’t mean that you should ignore it as it poses great danger. For example, it can be a fire or carbon monoxide risk.

What precautions should you take near a furnace?

To prevent the furnace from being a serious risk to you and your loved ones, you need to observe a number of precautions. These precautions include:

Keep the room well lit

Although, you rarely visit the furnace room, furnace service professionals recommend that you keep the room properly lit. This way you can easily see around when you visit it.

You also make it easy for the repair professional to repair and service the unit when the need arises.

To ensure that the room is properly lit, regularly inspect it and replace any burnt light bulbs or those with low lighting.

You also should always have a flashlight with you to use in the event the lights go out on you. You will even be better off having the flashlight in the furnace room that anyone can use.

Keep the room properly ventilated.

Furnaces are powered by electricity or fuels such as natural gas and propane. Due to this, you should ensure that there is proper ventilation so that they don’t overheat or clog carbon monoxide and other harmful gases that can be harmful to you and your loved ones.

As a rule of thumb, get rid of any unnecessary material from the room. This calls for you to get rid of any debris in the house. Also, clear away boxes or suitcases from around vents or air intakes.

Also, don’t lean anything against the furnace or leave filters or old furnace parts lying around.

Keep laundry and chemicals away.

Depending on the location of your furnace room, it’s easy to be tempted to store the cleaning products, chemicals, and even laundry near your furnace. While they might seem harmless, they can be hazardous.

For example, some of the chemicals or even the cleaning products might be flammable, putting your house at the risk of burning down.

The laundry detergents might also spill on your appliance damaging it. In some cases, hanging them near the furnace reduces airflow.

Install carbon monoxide detectors

It’s normal for any fuel-burning device to produce carbon monoxide. The unfortunate thing is that the gas is highly harmful and can easily lead to death.

In a normal functioning heating system, the fumes are vented outside the house where they can’t cause any harm.

Unfortunately, due to neglect, wear, and tear, or old age, the unit develops problems, and carbon monoxide doesn’t exit the house as it’s supposed to.  This is because it poses a serious risk to you and your loved ones.

To avoid this and be able to pick the high carbon monoxide levels as soon as they start accumulating, install carbon monoxide detectors in your house.

Installing the detectors isn’t enough—you will need to regularly inspect them and confirm that the batteries are still in good working condition.

The detectors should also be in tiptop shape and if they aren’t working properly, replace them.

Replace the filters

The filters determine the air quality getting in the house by filtering out dust, dirt, and debris.

When you go for a long time without cleaning the filters, they accumulate too much dirt and debris, and the furnace doesn’t function as well as it should.

Besides this increasing your electricity bill, it also drives your appliance to an early grave.

To be safe, make it a habit to clean your furnace cleaners at least once every three months. If you have allergies or pets, clean them once a month.

Work with an experienced installer.

At least once a year, hire an experienced furnace repair service Long Island to tune up the appliance. The professional should go through the unit and fix any issues it might be having.

For peace of mind that the professional knows what they are doing, the technician should be certified by an authorized body.