Winter Emergency Heating Services Paradise

A heating emergency generally describes a failure in a home's primary heating system during cold weather. This is a threat to the health and safety of the people living there. It might include a total breakdown of the furnace or a significant malfunction that prevents the system from doing what it is supposed to do: keep the space warm. It also might include situations where people living in the house are vulnerable to cold for some reason. And what that means is, if your main heating system is down during winter conditions, you might have a serious health problem—asthma, for example—that could also be significantly exacerbated by cold weather. Or you might be living with a family member who is 90 years old and not in a condition that allows for that person to withstand anything even approaching freezing temperatures for an extended period of time.

The use of emergency heat for the whole winter is not recommended because it is inefficient and costly. Emergency heating, which often involves electric resistance heating, is meant for use in a dire situation when your main heating system is not working or is working poorly and when the weather is so bad that the main system can't keep up. It is not a substitute for a well-functioning heating system, and using it for the whole winter could result in you paying a lot more for energy than you should. If your main system is not working or is working inefficiently, get it fixed. When it is working, it should be following the "well, it can do this, and it shouldn't be doing that" kind of guidelines.

In Paradise, a heat emergency could involve two different scenarios: one when the outdoor temperature drops to dangerously low levels; or the other when indoor heating systems fail during the cold months. Either situation could create profound health risks—from hypothermia to frostbite—that might affect a number of individuals in our community really close to us: the elderly, young children, people with serious health conditions (you know, the kinds of things that make ordinary people vulnerable). Our community is seriously at risk under these dangerous conditions, and this doesn't even account for the kinds of widespread heating outages that could happen during an extreme cold event when our utilities can barely keep up with demand.

When outdoor temperatures drop to between 25 degrees and 30 degrees Fahrenheit, heat pumps often begin to lose their efficiency. If they are not supplemented in some way, they might serve as an insufficient primary heat source for even mildly well-insulated homes. When the National Weather Service forecasted a low of 20 degrees for an overnight period in early February, it was a forecast UMW's facilities management team could work with.

How long you can run emergency heat in your home depends on several factors, like the kind of heating system you have, the capacity and condition of your fuel supply (if you have one), and the particularities of your equipment. Typically, emergency heat is intended for short-term use when the temperature outside is extremely low or your primary system isn't working at all. You should not rely on it as a replacement for your regular system. If you use it, expect your energy costs to rise, and know that you're likely putting extra stress on your heating equipment. Depending on the scenario and what kind of system you have, it might be better to err on the side of drastic cost increases than risk serious damage to your primary heating system.

When we talk about dangerously hot weather, we generally mean conditions where intense heat can lead to dangerous medical situations. Often, this "heat health threat" combines extreme temperature with high humidity, which can really pack a punch. Most of us start to feel the heat when temperatures exceed about 90°F (32°C), but for some, even high 80s can seem oppressive. They warn us to drink gallons of water, refrain from any vigorous activity (especially in the sun), and find ways to cool our bodies down to avoid the risk of heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

Three indications of an emergency related to heat are when someone is confused or has a changed mental state, when skin is hot and dry or covered with sweat, and when a person has a pulse that's racing or a heartbeat that's very strong.

Emergency heat typically uses less efficient methods to accomplish the task of heating. It often uses electric resistance heating, which can be quite cost-ineffective. Emergency heat in and of itself can be rather inefficient, leading to some of the same conservation problems typical of older styles of space heaters. Using emergency heat for more than a couple of days pushes most users toward seeing emergency heat as a last resort, because unlike more efficient space heaters, emergency heat doesn't accomplish much for the dollar. Also, if the main heater has failed to the extent that the house needs emergency heat, the chances that the user sees a reasonable amount of warmth come out of it, in anything other than a warm-up period (when the user might actually be able to pay for that sort of "warm-up price"), are slim.

There are several reasons why it can be very expensive to use emergency heat. Systems that function as emergency heat, like electric heat strips or space heaters, often use a tremendous amount of energy and are therefore much less efficient than a standard heating system. In fact, some emergency heating systems might be as much as twice or even three times as inefficient as standard heating systems. So, even though emergency heat is usually not as costly as an electric baseboard heater, it can certainly add up over time—not just because of inefficiency but also because of the prolonged use that's often necessary when a standard heating system fails.

It is perfectly fine for a heat pump to function all night during the winter. Heat pumps are meant to furnish steady and reliable heat, even during truly frigid weather. They move heat from the outside air into your home and work all night without an apparent end to maintain a comfortable temperature inside. Not only is this sort of operation probably necessary to avoid huge dips in temperature from one moment to the next, but it's also very likely the most energy-efficient way to keep the temperature inside my house where I want it.