Carbon monoxide poisoning is the leading cause of death by poisoning in the United States each year, and every year, more than five thousand people are hospitalized with injuries and sicknesses related to it. Of the twelve thousand poisoning deaths that occur in the United States each year, at least six hundred are from CO.
This deadly poison, which is colorless and odorless, can attack in even the safest-seeming of homes. It can seep into the air you and your family are breathing, and you may not even recognize its presence at first. Although carbon monoxide is usually noted for how quickly and easily it can cause deaths, it can also cause chronic symptoms, including flu-like symptoms, upset stomachs, headaches, and even brain damage.
CO poisoning is even worse for young children and pregnant women. People who smoke a lot or who have heart or lung problems can easily succumb to the effects of it. This danger, however, can affect any members of your family, including your pets, but you can protect your family members from this dangerous poison by using a few simple techniques.
One of the best ways to protect your family from CO is to replace your old furnace and hot water heater. A low-efficiency heating system can leak the residue of the burning natural gas or oil, and high-efficiency furnaces and hot water heaters will leak less residue. Replacing your furnace can also keep your home safe by getting rid of the old appliances, which may have rusty spots that are more likely to leak carbon monoxide and other bad residues.
Another one of the easiest ways to protect your family from the deadly gas is to have your furnace serviced each year. Get a professional to perform your furnace maintenance, which can keep your furnace more efficient. This can also keep the area around your furnace clean, and all of your ventilation systems clear of blockage that can cause carbon monoxide to back up and leak into your home.
After you’ve taken all these precautions, you should install carbon monoxide detectors in your home. These detectors come in many different sizes and shapes, and they have many different functions. For instance, some digital detectors offer a function that shows how much carbon monoxide is in the air of your home. Since there is always some CO around, you can see whether or not the level is approaching dangerous. More simple detectors will simply have a light or noise that would tell you when the carbon monoxide level is so high that you need to get out of the house.
These steps should be enough to keep your family safe from carbon monoxide, but if you have a chimney, you should also make sure that it’s in good shape, since loosening masonry can also cause you to have carbon monoxide poisoning in your home. Be sure, too, to check any of your other appliances that run on oil or natural gas, since they will also have potential to leak the dangerous gas.
If you’re looking at installing a new furnace in your home, now is a great time to do it. You can get a tax credit from the government for buying a high-efficiency furnace, but you may need to know a little bit about how furnaces are rated so that you can make the best possible choice for your home.
The most obvious rating for furnaces is the one assigned by the Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency. This rating basically looks at the percentage of heat produced for every dollar’s worth of fuel that your furnace consumers. Today, all furnaces have to be at least 78% efficient, which means that 78% of the fuel that is consumed by your furnace actually goes to heat your home.
Obviously, then, the higher the AFUE rating of the furnace you choose, the more money the furnace will save you. If you buy an 80% efficient furnace, you’ll lose 20% of your fuel costs into empty space, and if you buy a 90% efficient furnace, you’ll only waste 10% of your energy costs. Chances are likely that a furnace that’s more than a decade old will be losing you more than 20% of your energy costs, so a new high-efficiency furnace can save you a lot of money.
While a furnace’s rating is really important, it isn’t the only important thing that you should consider when selecting a furnace. For instance, furnaces consume not only oil or natural gas but also electricity, which runs their fans and motors. Different furnaces will consume different amounts of electricity, so buying a furnace that is not only efficient with your gas or oil but also with your electricity can save you money on your energy bills.
One of the most electrically efficient types of furnaces is one with a variable speed motor. These motors help precisely control the flow of the air in your home by turning off and on or moving at different speed during different times. These types of motors can save you lots of money on your electric bill.
Another way to save energy is to find a furnace that has two-stage heating, which means that it puts out high heat on very cold days and lower heat on milder days. Most of the time, the furnace will run at the lower heat output, which means that it will use less energy on these days.
Combining the actual AFUE ratings of the furnaces you’re choosing with the knowledge of its electrical efficiency and the type of heating that it offers can help you make the best choice on an energy-efficient furnace. You can basically save yourself even more money by doing the research on the type of furnace you’re buying rather than simply buying a furnace that happens to have a high energy-efficiency rating. Even some Energy Star rated furnaces could cause your electrical bills to rise – or at least not to fall when you replace your furnace – so be sure that you look at all the aspects of your furnace before you buy a new one.
If you’re like most people right now, you’re probably trying to figure out how to save money whenever you can. One of the best ways to do this is to cut down on your heating and cooling bills. You can save lots of money on these with an energy efficient furnace, but you can also save money on the actual furnace. There are lots of ways that you can save money with a new furnace, and here are just a few.
First off, a new energy efficient furnace will save you lots of money on your HVAC system if you buy it before the end of 2010. If you buy a new furnace that meets government restrictions between now and then, you can get a 30% credit back on your taxes. When we’re talking about something as expensive as a new furnace, 30% could be quite a lot of money. You can, in fact, save up to $1,500 on a new heating and cooling system for your home.
This tax credit is even better than your typical tax deduction, since it will go toward your taxes dollar-for-dollar. With a typical deduction, you can only get a dollar deduction off of your taxes up to a certain amount, but with this tax credit, the government will give you exactly 30% – up to $1,500 – of the cost of your new energy-efficient furnace. This money will either come in your tax check if you get a rebate, or it will act as a credit towards the amount you owe the government at the end of the year.
Secondly, buying a new energy efficient furnace will also save you money on furnace repair bills. When your old furnace is more than a decade old, chances are likely that you’ll have to pay a lot more to keep it running over the years. A brand new furnace, on the other hand, will cost more on the front end, but it will save you money over the years, since you’ll very rarely have to pay for an actual repair. Plus, many furnaces will come with a warranty, so you can count on someone else to pay for any possible repairs that you’ll need in the next few years.
Finally, and probably most obviously, a new energy efficient furnace can save you lots of money on your energy bills over the years. If you live in an area with cold, long winters, a new furnace can save you between $500 and $1,000 a year. This, alone, means that your new furnace will pay for itself within a few years. If you combine this with the government’s tax credit, you can easily buy a brand new furnace that will make up for its cost in just a couple of years.
As you can see, there are plenty of ways that you can save with a new energy efficient furnace, and even if you think that you can’t afford a new furnace installation right now, you can probably find a good deal on a new furnace for your home. Over time, this will be totally worthwhile.
