Winter Home Safety Tips

Your home is your most important and valuable asset, as well as being an investment in your family’s future. As such, you will want to do everything you can to protect it.

The ending of summer and onset of winter means many more evenings spent at home trying to stay warm. But what a lot of people don’t know is that some risks to your home are much higher in the wintertime.

Home fires happen more often during the winter than any other time of the year. Now that it’s on its way, people will want to prepare for the colder weather while being as safe as possible.

The good news is, most of those fire hazards are easily preventable and avoidable.

Your home’s potential fire hazards obviously depend on its specific heating system. Different systems have their advantages and disadvantages, in terms of costs and maintenance. They also have their own individual impacts on your home’s environment and safety.

Many people use space heaters. They can be very efficient, especially if you have a larger home and don’t want to unnecessarily heat some parts of it. You can move them between rooms effortlessly since they’re so portable. They don’t use much electricity, so they can help keep your utility bills lower.

However, space heaters also cause many accidental fires every year. The easiest way to avoid that is to be smart about their use. If you have a space heater in a room and it’s turned off, make sure you turn it off before you leave. Don’t ever leave it unattended.

It may seem like a good idea to leave a space heater on overnight. But fire prevention experts caution against this approach and urge you to make sure to turn them off before you go to bed.

Some people use their oven as a heater. Ovens can obviously generate a lot of heat in a very short period of time. Firefighters advise against it, though, and say there are many better ways to try and warm your home.

A chimney can be a nice feature for any home and allows couples or families to sit together by the fire. If your home has a chimney, you will want to have it inspected and cleaned by a professional at least once a year.

Most importantly, you should keep anything that can burn at least three feet from heating equipment. That includes fireplaces, wood stoves, radiators, space heaters and candles.

Located in Beaverton, Oregon, ABI Insurance offers free, no obligation quotes for personal and home insurance. Those quotes can be given over the phone or online at https://abipdx.wpengine.com/get-a-quote/.

Quality and integrity make a big difference for customers looking for coverage and peace of mind. That’s why ABI Insurance and its staff are particularly proud of the company’s A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau.

For more information, you can go to the ABI Insurance website, https://abipdx.wpengine.com. You can also call ABI Insurance at 503-292-1580.