Before winter cold sets in, it pays to make sure that your gas heating system and appliances are working safely. Two main dangers of defective systems are carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning and fires.
In Penfield, New York, a 54-year-old man died of CO poisoning one November. Prior to his death, the home’s CO alarms reportedly beeped and were removed from the house.
It’s called the ‘invisible killer’ and any fuel-burning appliance like furnaces and fireplaces are a potential carbon monoxide (CO) source. In fact, accidental CO deaths have become an unwelcome but increasing trend.
Play it safe because the Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates in recent years an average of 33,000 fires and 180 fire deaths are related to home heating.
- Schedule your yearly professional inspection of your fuel-burning systems including furnaces, gas dryers and water heaters.
- Fireplaces and chimneys need to be inspected for leakage and blockage from creosote or debris every year. (Before we put on the cap, we had swifts building bird nests in our chimney!)
- Avoid use of portable propane space heaters indoors, unless designed specifically for indoor use. Always follow the manufacturer’s directions for proper use.
- Never use your kitchen gas stove to heat your home. They are not intended for that purpose and can pose a CO or fire hazard.
The US Fire Administration warns home fires spike in winter months. This is the season when home heating and cooking are the leading cause of home fires.
Your risk increases by supplementing with space heaters, so be extra careful.
- Never use a space heater when you go to sleep, or place it close to any sleeping person.
- Keep the kids and pets away from space heaters.
- Keep the heater at least three (3) feet away from furniture, rugs/carpet, bedding, drapes and other burnable items. Place it on a fire-proof mat.
Give yourself valuable escape time by making sure that you have working smoke and CO alarms. It’s an important line of home defense for your family and pets. Besides, it will protect your indoor air quality!
How many CO alarms do you have and where are they located?
I confess to enjoy the daily ritual of spotting the white rectangular newspaper bundle sitting on the driveway at “O-dark thirty”.
There’s something about flipping and scanning through the paper I like. Plus, there’s my addiction to clipping out interesting bits here and there. A photo, a cartoon, a funny news blurb.
I’ll share that I don’t throw away the plastic bags the paper comes in, we recycle it.
Here’s what we do…
We reuse the plastic bag for daily cleaning of the kitty litter tray.
Or …
We take one plastic sleeve and fill it up with other bag sleeves, then shove it in the newspaper box.
It’s efficient and requires no more effort than taking these out when you walk out to pick up your paper each morning.
Or…
We drop them into a collection bin at our neighborhood grocery store. Ask at Customer Service where it’s kept. Your kids will love to help out and they’ll see the practical side to recycling in action!
Create Your Own Home Recycle Center
Designating a small area (or areas) in your house to recycling is considered a green building practice. You and the family are more likely to separate and recycle at home if it is easy to do.
As trash is generated, we have two baskets – one for un-recyclables and one for clean/rinsed recyclable. Easy.
If you need to further divide out glass from aluminum, it’s painless to carry the basket to where other larger collection bins are kept.
I am always fascinated by the names of odd things. Take for instance the white, inner rind of a citrus fruit. It’s called an ‘albedo’. Who thinks up this stuff?
I’m humored because green builders also use ‘albedo’ when choosing different types of cool roofs. By the way, cool roofs lower your home air conditioning requirements.
That’s right. Cool roof = cool cash.
So if you are uncomfortably hot and tired of high air conditioning bills, concentrate on your roof.
Let me explain. Read More
When entertaining outdoors, you obviously want to create a comfortable setting. A combination of decks and patios don’t have to be elaborate to impress your guests, just well built. Besides they also add property value and expand the functionality of your home.
Green builders favor more patio than deck surfaces because the low-maintenance brick, masonry or stone materials last 50+ years. Decks, on the other hand, last about 25 years and require more frequent attention.
Having said that, decks can be divine for certain uses. They’re easily built and modified as your family needs change; are multi-function for activities, for example, on top with concealed storage below; and if FSC-certified wood is used your material is a renewable resource.
FSC or Forestry Stewardship Council certified forest products are responsibly grown and logged wood that benefit both people and the environment.
Composite/synthetic/extruded decking materials like Trex have their uses, but none are as cool under foot, can beat a moderate budget, or can display such inherently beautiful grain as natural wood.
Follow these simple steps to get a beautiful wood deck project that will last long term: Read More
Hardwood, tile, carpet – one product doesn’t clean them all. In fact each type of floor needs its own care product.
In the Build That Green Idea House we used the latest generation of green build waterborne polyurethanes called Bona Traffic on the master bedroom floors.
Made specifically for home hardwoods and heavy traffic commercial wood 
floors, Traffic has proven itself to be extremely durable.
We all love hardwood floors, but we know to be their best, they need to be cleaned properly.
Ever heard your grandmother or your mother say: use vinegar and water to clean your floors? In fact it’s one of the Worst things you can do because Read More
The persistent beeping of an alarm under the floor woke us up at midnight the other night.
We’d had a tremendously hot 101 degree day for the summer solstice and all of a sudden, we had a monster rain storm.
What we found, was that Read More
Your Turn: My house is so dusty. The family room carpet is especially hard to keep clean. My husband covered the air filter with cheesecloth. He says my three dogs might be part of the problem. – Cheryl, Fayetteville, NC
My Turn: The US Green Building Council cautions that a majority of dust and dirt is tracked inside by your family including your pets. Debris carried in on shoes and paws can contain pesticides, lead dust, herbicides and other hazardous materials.
Moisture is also tracked into your home, leading to mold growth in carpets, especially near the doors. I’d also recommend you consider an air filter switch.
As a rule, green building minimizes wall-to-wall carpet and here’s why. Read More
Along the time when tea was dumped into the Boston harbor to protest Britain’s rule over the colonies, naturalist William Bartram filled his breakfast tea cup in the Carolina Piedmont. It was the 1770’s. He sat reviewing his plant journals recently inked while traveling throughout southeastern North America.
One spectacular native plant he observed and published in his Travels chronicle is the Read More
Isn’t it true that most folks treat their front yard like some department store display? Look but better not mess it up!
Unlike Victorian homes, modern houses lack comfortable porches so little time is spent loitering there. Visitors step from the car into an invisible ‘front yard’ zone that urges them straight to the front door bell.
Your front yard typically gobbles a third of your property, so why not use it more?
Create a sense of hospitality by first providing an outdoor alcove between your front step and the street. By default, it also improves your home’s curb appeal too!
To do this, Read More
