You probably spend a lot of time and energy shoveling your walkways and driveways to protect your family from injury in the aftermath of a storm. It just makes sense! However, there’s one other important thing to remember: don’t forget to clear your home’s vent and air intake pipes, either!
Keeping these pipes clear is critical to your family’s safety. To understand why, let’s take a look at some heating system basics.
An older home will typically house its exhaust pipe in a chimney—a location that is not likely to be significantly blocked by snow or other debris. But in a newer home, a vent pipe may feed directly through an exterior wall, leaving it much more vulnerable to blockage by piled or drifting snow. If the vent is blocked, it could cause a dangerous buildup of exhaust fumes inside your home, including deadly carbon monoxide.
While the consequences of a blocked air intake pipe are not as severe as those for a blocked exhaust pipe, they could still cause some problems for you: without oxygen, your heating system will stall or shut down as a safety measure. In many cases you will need to call a professional to restart your system.
So how exactly do you clear your exhaust and intake vents? Here’s the process:
Stay safe this winter with reliable heating oil and propane deliveries in VT from Jack F. Corse! Contact us today to learn more, or to become a Corse customer.