Summer in the Peachtree City area means lots of warm weather and sunshine. However, as residents well know, it also means that it’s the time of year when hurricanes, tornadoes and severe summer storms can be the norm. Therefore, here are several home-preparedness tips that can help you get through the flooding and loss of power that these storms sometimes cause, as well as protecting the investment that you’ve made in your home.

Ensure your personal safety

Here are several tips to ensure the safety of you and your loved ones during summer storms and power outages:

• Keep enough shelf-ready food in your home to last for three days, for each person. Cereals, dried and canned food, healthy sports drinks, and bottled water will keep you and your loved ones going.
• Have an ice chest on hand, ready to be filled should the power go out. There’s no telling how long your power may be out, and you can combine your frozen and refrigerated foods in the ice chest to help it last longer. Additionally, during a power outage, try not to open your refrigerator any more than necessary, to retain the cold air, and your food’s freshness, for as long as possible. An instant-read thermometer is useful in determining what to keep or throw away. Don’t eat anything that is over 40 degrees for maximum food safety.
• Have a battery-operated fan available for each person in your home. Although it won’t cool your air, you will feel more comfortable.
• Verify that you have enough batteries for all necessary devices, including flashlights and portable radios. Check the strength of the batteries occasionally, and replace them if their strength is weak.
• Learn how to manually open your garage door. You might need to get your car out to ensure your safety or comfort.

Keep your home safe

Here are several home-preparedness tips for ensuring the safety of your home during a power outage:

• Consider connecting your major appliances, including the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system, to surge protectors. When the power goes out and comes back on, it’s not uncommon for it to spike, which can damage the delicate electronics inside your equipment. If you opt not to use surge protectors, shut off the appliances until the power has been restored and is stable.
• Invest in a stand-by generator if being without power for any length of time would be a hardship. These generators provide power automatically when the power goes down and can power any number of circuits, depending on the system that you choose.

If you’d like more home-preparedness tips, or perhaps want to talk about a preventive-maintenance plan for your valuable HVAC system, contact the experts at Powers Heating & Air. We provide HVAC services in Fayette & Coweta Counties area.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Peachtree, GA and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about home-preparedness tips and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

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