Some of the most common items that we use during the winter are the things that we tend to feel comfortable using, so we let our guard down and often become victims because of it. Since we feel comfortable using these items and they are familiar to us, we do not usually think that anything can go wrong because we have been using them for so long, but nothing could be further from the truth. Anything electrical, especially if it puts out heat, can cause a house to catch on fire and burn to the ground before you can even blink.
One thing that is commonly used in areas that have cold winters are electric blankets. These cause more fires than some people imagine and there have been many cases where someone has woken up with their bed on fire because they left it on while they were sleeping. You should only use electric blankets to warm up the bed before you get in it and never leave them on their highest setting for long, if you turn it up that high at all. Do not leave these unattended for more than a few minutes and always turn them off if you are leaving the house.
The same can be said for space heaters. These are very convenient to have if you are on a budget and only need to heat a small area of your home during the winter. Like electric blankets, you should not leave these on while you are asleep or not at home, since most house fires happen during these times. They should not be used in the rooms of small children or on carpeted surfaces, if possible. Certain varieties are safer than others and you may want to consider getting one that has a fan function and is raised off the floor by a few inches. These are safer, since they do not heat the carpet around them nearly as much as space heaters with short legs and only heating coils.
Another thing you should be concerned with is grease in the kitchen. Heating grease and leaving it unattended is one of the worst things that you can do. At least one person I personally know of started this process, went to sit down, fell asleep, and burned her entire house to the ground. She was lucky she made it out alive.
You should never neglect these and other electric items in your home, especially if they put out large amounts of heat. It could be one of the worst mistakes you ever make.
Friday, January 25, 2008
The Best Ways To Protect Your Home From Fires
Protecting your home from wildfires is probably not as difficult as you might think it would be, as long as you have the time and money to put into it. There are a lot of different ways to help protect your home and if you can do all of them, you just might end up saving your house.
The condition of the lawn and other vegetation around the outside of your house is usually the first line of defense, so make sure this is taken care of first. Your lawn should stay mowed and not allowed to become overgrown or dry and grass cuttings need to be raked far away from the house, but preferably taken away from the property. Trees near the home should be cut down.
Fire-resistant materials should be used in new constructions and if possible, the exterior materials of older homes should be replaced. Old homes often have vinyl or wooden siding on them and this is not fire-resistant at all, especially not compared to brick, stone, or metal. The last three materials will protect your home a lot more and you should have these installed if you are in an area that is prone to wildfires. You will thank yourself later.
The roof is perhaps the most important exterior surface of your home, since it has the largest amount of surface area. The wind carries sparks of fire on it when there are wildfires nearby and when these land on your roof, it can catch it on fire. To do away with the majority of this risk, you should have fire-resistant roofing material installed. Asphalt shingles are oil-based and will catch on fire fairly easily and so will wooden shingles. A metal roof can help solve this problem, among a few other materials available on the market today.
When a wildfire is nearby, you would also do well to keep your roof and lawn wet to discourage firebrands floating on the wind to ignite. If you must evacuate your home, you should wet the lawn down as much as possible to slow the fire from getting close to your home.
Small windows in your home instead of large ones can help, since they will radiate a lot less heat inside the house and be less likely to catch drapes and other things near the window on fire.
The condition of the lawn and other vegetation around the outside of your house is usually the first line of defense, so make sure this is taken care of first. Your lawn should stay mowed and not allowed to become overgrown or dry and grass cuttings need to be raked far away from the house, but preferably taken away from the property. Trees near the home should be cut down.
Fire-resistant materials should be used in new constructions and if possible, the exterior materials of older homes should be replaced. Old homes often have vinyl or wooden siding on them and this is not fire-resistant at all, especially not compared to brick, stone, or metal. The last three materials will protect your home a lot more and you should have these installed if you are in an area that is prone to wildfires. You will thank yourself later.
The roof is perhaps the most important exterior surface of your home, since it has the largest amount of surface area. The wind carries sparks of fire on it when there are wildfires nearby and when these land on your roof, it can catch it on fire. To do away with the majority of this risk, you should have fire-resistant roofing material installed. Asphalt shingles are oil-based and will catch on fire fairly easily and so will wooden shingles. A metal roof can help solve this problem, among a few other materials available on the market today.
When a wildfire is nearby, you would also do well to keep your roof and lawn wet to discourage firebrands floating on the wind to ignite. If you must evacuate your home, you should wet the lawn down as much as possible to slow the fire from getting close to your home.
Small windows in your home instead of large ones can help, since they will radiate a lot less heat inside the house and be less likely to catch drapes and other things near the window on fire.
Reducing The Mold In Your House
Removing mold from your house often involves a lot of scrubbing, cleaning, and sometimes replacing entire walls and floors, but there are ways to prevent mold from developing in the house in the first place. One of the easiest ways to prevent mold growth in the home is to make sure the majority of the mold spores in the area are collected and done away with.
HEPA filters are built into vacuum cleaners and air purification systems to remove as much particle debris as possible and it is effective up to about 99.7% of removing almost anything from the air you could want removed. Smoke particles, pet dander, hair, pollen, dust mites, mold spores, and etcetera are all removed from the air that you breathe and this not only stops mold spores from being able to grow in your home, but also from forming an infection in your body. You should note that not all particles in the air are removed, but since only about 0.3% remain, this last bit that remains is negligible in comparison.
Air purification systems are becoming popular in families that have a history of breathing problems such as asthma and allergies. Since people are spending more and more time indoors these days, especially in work environments, the air that we breathe indoors is becoming much more important. The indoor environments that we work in typically allow the air to become stale. Fans do not really solve this problem very well, since all they do is cause the dust and other debris to be stirred up into the air instead of removed. When purchasing an air purification system for your home, you should make sure that you buy one that can handle the square footage of your home so it does the best job it can.
Vacuum cleaners should also have HEPA filters in them, since their purpose is to pull soil and particle debris out of your carpet. If it does not have a filter on it, then all of the dust and particles that the vacuum collected will be spilled back into the air that you breathe and you might as well not have vacuumed at all.
Remember when you vacuum a carpet, you should vacuum all of it and not just part of it. When you get your HEPA filtered vacuum cleaner, go over the carpet at least twice to get it as clean as you can. If members of your family have allergies, it is probably a good idea to do away with as much of the carpet in your home as possible, since pollen, dust mites, mold spores, and the like will have less places to live if you do.
HEPA filters are built into vacuum cleaners and air purification systems to remove as much particle debris as possible and it is effective up to about 99.7% of removing almost anything from the air you could want removed. Smoke particles, pet dander, hair, pollen, dust mites, mold spores, and etcetera are all removed from the air that you breathe and this not only stops mold spores from being able to grow in your home, but also from forming an infection in your body. You should note that not all particles in the air are removed, but since only about 0.3% remain, this last bit that remains is negligible in comparison.
Air purification systems are becoming popular in families that have a history of breathing problems such as asthma and allergies. Since people are spending more and more time indoors these days, especially in work environments, the air that we breathe indoors is becoming much more important. The indoor environments that we work in typically allow the air to become stale. Fans do not really solve this problem very well, since all they do is cause the dust and other debris to be stirred up into the air instead of removed. When purchasing an air purification system for your home, you should make sure that you buy one that can handle the square footage of your home so it does the best job it can.
Vacuum cleaners should also have HEPA filters in them, since their purpose is to pull soil and particle debris out of your carpet. If it does not have a filter on it, then all of the dust and particles that the vacuum collected will be spilled back into the air that you breathe and you might as well not have vacuumed at all.
Remember when you vacuum a carpet, you should vacuum all of it and not just part of it. When you get your HEPA filtered vacuum cleaner, go over the carpet at least twice to get it as clean as you can. If members of your family have allergies, it is probably a good idea to do away with as much of the carpet in your home as possible, since pollen, dust mites, mold spores, and the like will have less places to live if you do.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
