If you have a fireplace, you have a chimney. If you use your fireplace, you probably clean it out regularly. But you may not think about cleaning out your chimney regularly, which is a necessity. You should have your chimney swept out at least once a year. You can hire a chimney maintenance company to come and sweep out your chimney for you. There are several reasons why you need to do this.
Chimney Fires
The biggest reason to get your chimney cleaned regularly is that a dirty chimney is at higher risk for a fire. All the soot and creosote that comes up from the fire coats the inside of the chimney. That stuff is all flammable and the bigger the build-up there is, the more likely it is that a little spark or ember will float up from the fire and hit something in your chimney and start a fire. If you have the chimney sweep come in after you light your last fire of the year and clean your chimney and get rid of all that stuff, and ask them to make sure that you have a grate over the top of your chimney so birds can't get in, then you are going to be in a good place when fall comes and it's time to light a fire.
Chimney Maintenance
Another reason to have a chimney sweep come in and clean out your chimney regularly is that they are going to be able to check out your chimney to make sure that it's in good shape as possible. When the chimney sweeper is working on your chimney, they can also send up a camera into your chimney. That will let them see the inside of your chimney. The camera will be attached to a monitor so that the person cleaning out your chimney can see what's going on immediately. Because it's on a monitor, they will be able to show you what's going on with the chimney and can tell you what you are going to need to have done with it so that your chimney will be ready to go the next winter.
If you have a fireplace that you use, you need to make sure that you are taking care of your chimney. That includes having your chimney cleaned at least every year. A clean chimney is an efficient chimney and will give you a better fire.
Share26 March 2020
Every summer, I agonized over energy bills that would shoot into the stratosphere as a result of my efforts to keep cool in the heat. Every time I turned the temperature down, my bills increased. This summer, I decided to take some of the control over my energy bill back. I installed reflective film on my windows that reduced the amount of light and heat coming into the house. I started serving more cold meals or asking my husband to barbecue outside, so that my air conditioner didn't have to compete with the hot stove, and I started doing laundry at night to reduce appliance heat in the house at peak times. I also had ceiling fans installed. So far, the difference in my bill has been tremendous. This blog is a way for me to explore other ways to reduce energy drain during the summer months.