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2013 Fall Home Improvement September 25, 2013
Special edition of LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.com
by Nila Smith
this WINTER
Turn down the thermostat and get cozy
For “empty nesters,” there are rooms in
the house that are not used on a daily
basis, but many forced-air furnace manu-
facturers will tell you it isn’t good for your
furnace to shut off air vents in an unused
room. At the same time it seems wasteful
to keep an unused room at 72 degrees.
One answer for this might be to turn the
thermostat down and use space heaters in
rooms that are in use. However, even with
today’s technology, space heaters can pose
certain dangers and should be used with
care.
Here are some statistics from the U.S. Fire
Administration regarding fires related to
space heaters:
WHEN
winter begins to set in, for many there is a concern as to what it is
going to cost to provide comfortable temperatures inside the home.
Portable Heater Fire Statistics
• An estimated 900 portable heater fires in residential buildings are reported to U.S. fire depart-
ments each year and cause 70 deaths, 150 injuries and $53 million in property loss.
• Only 2 percent of heating fires in homes involve portable heaters, however, portable heaters are
involved in 45 percent of all fatal home heating fires.
• Portable heater fires in homes peak in January (26 percent).
• 52 percent of home portable heater fires occur because they are too close to items that can burn.
• 38 percent of home portable heater fires originate in bedrooms. In these fires, bedding, such as
blankets, sheets and comforters, is the leading item first ignited by portable heaters at 25 percent.
--U.S. Fire Administration
