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SALT LAKE CITY — When the temperature plummets in Utah, business spikes for heating and plumbing professionals.
"The colder it is outside, the more it's going to run. The more it runs, the more likely it is to break down," said Mike Stischak, a service manager with Whipple Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning.
If your heater died this week, or your pipes froze, you know how busy they are. They're handling calls well into the evening, and even overnight.
Stischak went on a service call in Magna Wednesday at Joey Montoya's home. His heater hasn't been working properly for five days.
- Keep anything that can burn at least three feet away from heating equipment.
- Never use your oven to heat your home.
- Remember to turn portable heaters off when leaving the room or going to bed.
- Test smoke alarms monthly.
- Have a three-foot "kid-free zone" around open fires and space heaters.
- Have heating equipment and chimneys cleaned and inspected every year by a qualified professional.
"It wasn't even heating the house at all," Montoya says. "Just a little bit."
They were using a space heater and extra blankets to stay warm. The heater is well over 50 years old. It started to smell strange, and his wife was getting headaches. So, they called a heating professional.
"Immediately, when I walked in the door, I was kind of overwhelmed with a spent fuel smell," said Stischak. So, he took a closer look. "I saw the flames starting to roll out from under the furnace."
He picked up a carbon monoxide reading of 18 ppm, which is very dangerous.
"Surprisingly, we didn't get sick," Montoya said.
Soot build-up was blocking the exhaust system. That forced the flame out below the furnace. Newer furnaces have safety mechanisms that will shut them down when that happens.
Stischak said that carbon monoxide level would not immediately sicken a person. But, over time, it would take a toll, as evidenced by Mrs. Montoya's headaches.
"Ultimately, this is an older furnace that has a plugged heat exchanger and it's time for a new one," the service manager said.
- Open cupboard doors under sinks to let interior heat warm the pipes.
- Temporarily keep a steady, but slow drip of cold water at an inside faucet farthest from the meter to keep water moving and less likely to freeze.
- If you are away more than a day, shutting off your water and leaving the thermostat at 55 degrees can reduce the chance of broken pipes.
Cold snaps like this are tough on heaters. "The more you run it, the more stress is going to put on the furnace," Stischak said. "I would say, keep the thermostat this time of year maybe 68 to 70 degrees, rather than 74 or 75." That cuts down the demand on the heater, and also saves on your heating bill.
The biggest preventive step we can take with our heaters is to replace the filter every few months. The service manager says 50% of their service calls for heaters are due to a clogged filter. Other times, the heater just needs to be repaired or replaced.
Stischak said they don't have problems with frozen pipes quite as often, although that can happen in unfinished basements, with pipes close to the outer walls.
If your pipes freeze, never thaw them with an open flame; a hair dryer is a safer alternative. If there is no water to your home, the problem may be in the street; call your public utilities company. If your pipes break, shut off the water at the shut-off valve and turn off the circuit breaker or the gas to the water heater.
"Really, the easiest way to take care of that, is to first wrap the pipes, and also have some source of heat down there," he said.
