Table of Contents
Introduction
One of the best ways to keep your home warm and equally add value to your home is the use of space heaters. However, the question is, are they entirely safe to leave on through the night. You should know that space heaters are dangerous to leave on all through the night due to the several risks they pose, including dry skin, fires, and carbon monoxide poisoning. Hence whether you are in the room or not, it is not safe to leave the space heater on all through the night.
So what should you do then? It is recommended that before going to bed, you should try to heat your room for about 2 – 3 hours and then have it turned off. For the next few hours, your room will conserve and maintain the heated temperature produced by the space heater when you do. You must at all cost resist the urge of leaving out your heater to run over night. Even though some heaters come with several safety features and manufacturers may even claim that you can use them even in unsafe working conditions, to be on the safe side, avoid using your heater while sleeping.
Three Reasons Why Leaving Space Heaters Overnight Is Dangerous
- They could cause fire outbreak: Fire outbreak is one of the primary reasons you must avoid leaving your space heater to work overnight. Research has it that one of the significant causes of fire outbreaks during winter is heating equipment.
The reason is that space heaters are among the most popular used home appliances. Another report from the U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission states that space heaters cause every year over 25000 home fire outbreaks. Furthermore, space heaters are responsible for over 6000 people burn-related injuries and additional 300 deaths every year.
Most space heater fire outbreaks start whenever it is mistakenly tipped over, or an overheat of an object in the room. If you have an old space heater, you should be cautious too as it can malfunction or overeat, leading to a fire outbreak. Although you can avoid these home hazards by adopting safety measures that potentially save you lots of danger, it’s still not worth the risk, given the unpredictable nature of heats.
- Space Heaters Emit Dangerous Carbon Monoxide: The possibility of space heaters causing a fire is on its own dangerous, and most people would do their best to avoid such an incident. Nevertheless, even if you take all necessary precautions against potential fire outbreaks, well another danger lurking behind fire outbreaks is carbon monoxide poisoning from space heaters.
Just like most heaters, space heaters produce carbon monoxide. If you are using your space heater at night, you stand a greater risk of Carbon monoxide poisoning. The creepy thing about Carbon monoxide poisoning is that it’s a quiet killer – you’re not going to smell, hear or see a sign. It’s toxic, and it kills in a matter of hours.
The Side effects of carbon monoxide poisoning are not something you want to neglect. Signs like blurred vision, vomiting, shortness of breath, tiredness, fatigue, dizziness, and nausea are typical symptoms you need to pay serious attention to. If you notice any signs by any chance, you need to step outside your house immediately to take deep, fresh, natural air. You might also want to turn off the space heater and open all the ventilation to your home for a few minutes.)
- Space Heaters Dries out Body Skin: Dry skins are one of the common sign signs that winter is in season. Even when you apply moisturizers to your skin, t has little impact. It is relatively easy to blame the cause of your dry skin on your space heater, but you might be neglecting a hidden culprit, which is your space heater.
When the temperature rises, we prefer to warm our rooms all day and night. The concern with this is that these heating devices drain moisture from the skin. Dryness of the skin can cause many health problems, particularly when you notice that you have started developing cracks on your skin.
When you discover that your skin is always dry, then you have to minimize the use of your space heater. As an alternative, you might even consider installing a house humidifier or considering a humidifying device as a replacement for space heaters. The humidifying device will give your skin the much-needed moisture at night. To ensure that your skin stays smooth and natural throughout the winter, moisturized before going to bed.
Conclusion
You have to understand that although space heaters are essential for home heating, especially during the winter, they should not be the primary source of home heating. The reasons discussed above occur as a result of the improper use of space home heaters. Hence even if you try to implement all the safety features the manufacturer suggests. The best advice would be to apply serious caution when using the space heater.