Ehrhart Propane & Oil would like you to know that there are simple steps you can take to protect yourself from deadly carbon monoxide fumes. Please read and follow the safety tips contained in the link below:

Carbon Monoxide Safety Action Steps

Your furnace filter filters the air that circulates through your house. As the filter gets plugged a few things happen.

1. More allergens make it through the filter, degrading the air quality in your home.
2. Your blower motor has to work harder, gets hotter, and wears out faster (and it’s never at a convenient time!
3. The velocity of the air is reduced, which means the hot air cannot be distributed efficiently and your house will feel colder.
4. Not circulating enough air across your heat exchanger can cause the heat exchanger to operate at higher than designed temperature. In extreme situations, the limit switch will trip, shutting the furnace off. But the mild cases are even worse: the heat exchanger can warp and crack. Once a heat exchanger is cracked, you will need to replace it. It’s usually cheaper to replace the entire furnace.

So do your furnace, your home and your family a favor. Change your filter once a month.

If it’s 25 degrees outside today, and you keep your house at 65 degrees, then you’re heating up 40 degrees. If you turn the thermostat down 5 degrees, it’s not 5/65=7.6%, but rather 5/40=12.5%

So turn that thermostat down and save some money!

The first step for winterizing your home is to eliminate drafts. A lot of this can be done for free, and can save you a surprising amount of money. Things to look for: gaps under and around doors or windows, exposed openings into uninsulated crawl spaces, obviously any open windows or doors. One common source of leaks is the areas around outlets. Wiring can sometimes be run into heated space from non-heated spaces, and the hole is a source of drafts. If you have a mobile home, you should make sure your skirting is in place and in good condition. When you find an opening, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to fill it. I prefer GreatStuff, a spray foam product that you can pick up at a hardware store for $5 or so. But in fact, rolled up newspaper or old socks will do the trick. For electrical outlets, really inexpensive foam pieces are available that go right behind the outlet cover. It’s a 2 minute job to unscrew the cover, put the foam on, screw the cover back on, move to the next outlet.

Once drafts are eliminated, the next most important thing is to make sure your ceiling is insulated. This can be costly, depending on the construction of your home. If you have an open, accessible attic, you can buy rolls of fiberglass insulation and lay it on the floor of the attic. If it has to go against the ceiling, be sure there is an airspace between the the top of the insulation and the bottom of the roof. That airspace is really important to prevent ice dams, which can destroy your roof. If your attic is not accessible, consider blown-in insulation. You can buy the materials and rent the machine at a hardware store, or hire a contractor who can do it for you. The machine blows material into the spaces, which settles and insulates. No matter which method you choose, take the time to do it right. In our region, the recommended R-Valuefor ceilings is 30 (that’s actually code for new construction). The R-Value represents how thick the insulation is, and how well it insulates. Think of it like a three season jacket vs. a ski coat.

The next step is to make sure your floor is insulated. This is especially important in crawl spaces, floors of mobile homes, or any floor that is suspended above a non-heated space. You can insulate with rolled fiberglass, or sometimes foam board is easier. Just attach it to the joists, and you’re done!

Notice one thing I didn’t mention was new windows. It’s not that I don’t think they’re a good idea (in fact, I am slowly replacing the windows in my house). It’s just that they’re a big investment, and the return, in my opinion, isn’t fast enough. That of course depends a bit on what you have in place now. If you have really old wood windows that leak, you’ll recover your investment much faster. In my house, I have a few windows that aren’t that old, but are located on a wall that gets hammered with a lot of wind. So for those windows, it’ll be a good investment.

I have used a product before which is really cheap, and improves leaky windows quite a lot. It’s a plastic that you attach to the window casing with double surface tape. You then blow a hair dryer over it, and the plastic stretches tight. A $10, 15 minute investment, which will save you hundreds of dollars. You can find this at any hardware store as well.

The last suggestions I have a simple quick things that cost no money at all. 1) keep your furnace filter clean or replace it monthly 2) Close your curtains at night or, in rooms you’re not using, all the time 3) throw rugs on the floor will make the floor feel more comfortable, and you’ll not need to keep the thermostat as high 4) Automatic setback thermostats cost as little as $30 and can save you hundreds each year. They turn the thermostat down when you’re at work, and back up just before you coming home. 5) consider throwing on a sweater and turning the thermostat down a few degrees. If you turn it down from 70 to 68, on a 30 degree day, that’s 5%. If you burn 300 gallons a month, you’ve just saved 15 gallons. At today’s prices, that’s $45-$60 PER MONTH.

Some of the steps I outlined above cost money. Many of them are completely free. ALL of them will put more money in your pocket. That’s a good thing!

This is in no small measure due to the dedication of our employees, who continually impress me with their commitment to our customers’ comfort.

This story from last Thanksgiving is a good example: Jean Alve of Spencer was cooking a turkey in her propane stove when suddenly the heat cut out. As Ms. Alve tells it, “We thought we had run out of gas.”  She immediately called Ehrhart. Technician Don Covert was on call that day and he went right out to investigate the problem. Ms. Alve expected that Don might be a little grumpy about having to work on Thanksgiving, so she was happy to see that Don was so pleasant. “Don said we weren’t out of gas, and got a replacement part from the truck and got the stove going right away,” said Ms. Alve.

This story is not unique. Every day I see the dedication of our employees in ways large and small. Frankly, it’s people like Don who make us proud to come to work every day.

This has been a tough year with the economy and the weather, but I want you to know that no matter what happens, you can rely on Ehrhart to keep you comfortable and safe.

In fact, several other factors must be addressed, including the regulator, the burner and the burner air shutter. It is not a good idea to “tinker” with your gas appliances, including the stove, the dryer or the furnace. This is a job best left to the professionals.

Before you modify any gas appliance, please call the experts at Ehrhart.