Hurricane Preparedness: Protecting Your HVAC System And Your Family

Here in Delaware and the surrounding areas, we’ve seen our share of hurricanes, and the coming seasons will continue to bully East Coast residents with threats of destructive weather. Now is the time to implement hurricane preparedness tips so you are never caught off guard. Below are steps you can take to protect your HVAC system and your family.

Protect your HVAC system

When a storm warning has been issued, follow these hurricane preparedness steps:

• Turn off the air conditioner.
• If you have a window or portable A/C unit that exhausts through a window, remove the unit and close the window.
• If you have central air conditioning, cover the outdoor condensing unit with a tarp and/or plywood to protect it from flying debris. Secure it with hurricane straps to protect against damaging high winds.
• After the storm has passed, inspect the air conditioner visually before turning it on. You may want to hire an HVAC professional to inspect your A/C system before running the unit again.

Protect you and your family Before a hurricane heads your way, take the following actions:

• Put together a survival kit.
• Learn about your community’s warning signals, evacuation routes, emergency plans and the locations of emergency shelters.
• Know where your home’s electrical power box is located, along with the gas and water supplies so you can shut them off before you evacuate your home.
• Identify objects in your home that could pose hazards in a hurricane and know how to secure or protect them in case a storm strikes.
• Keep a fire extinguisher in an easy-to-reach place. Make sure every family member knows where it’s kept and how to use it.
• Keep all your important papers in one place (insurance policies, licenses, wills, stocks, birth certificates, Social Security cards) so you can grab and go in an evacuation.
• Post emergency phone numbers at each phone.
• Inform the local authorities about a family member’s special needs, such as being elderly, disabled or bed-ridden.
• Make arrangements for your pet in case of an emergency.

For more hurricane preparedness tips, please contact us at Sobieski Services. Our goal is to help educate our customers in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC & plumbing systems).

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