With summer days fading and cold weather looming, it is likely you will be reaching for the central heating controls or firelighters in the coming weeks and months. But what if you have small children in the house? How can you make your home a warm but safe environment for children who might not know better than to touch your fireplace or electric heater?
Fires
If you have an active fire then you will want to prevent small children from touching it. A traditional method for doing this was using a metal fire guard but these can often get quite hot themselves and still cause minor burns. Depending on the size of your room, you can get larger fireguards, almost like cages, that will surround the entire fireplace. Most of these ‘cage guards’ can be folded away; meaning you can enjoy the look of your fireplace without the cage when the children are not in the room. If you need a fireguard that sits closer to the fire then consider buying one coated in a heat resistant plastic; these will not make the guard completely cool but they will certainly be less dangerous than a bare metal guard.Radiators
Radiators can be covered up with a variety of radiator covers. Radiator covers can be incredibly attractive and designed to suit your homes décor; meaning they can be an interior design choice as well as a safety feature. Radiator covers made from wood will provide the best protection from the heat of the radiator but also consider covering any exposed pipes too as these can get just as hot, if not hotter, than the radiators themselves. Thermostatically controlled radiators can be programmed to turn off at certain times during the day so, if you don’t have children yourself, and don’t want to cover your heaters, then consider programming your heaters to turn off when the kids visit.Fan/Storage heaters
Fan and storage heaters can be covered in much the same way as radiators but if you are not opting to cover your heaters, and simply trusting your children to avoid your heaters, then pass on another piece of advice to them: Don’t put anything on the heater! Fan heaters and Storage heaters expel most of their heat through grills at the top of the heater and anything sat on top of these grills can become very hot, very quickly causing a potential injury hazard.So, it is possible to have safe and warm home. Older children should be able to stay away from heaters by being told to do so but if children of toddler age or younger are in your house then I would defiantly recommend investing in some sort of cover of guard.
~ This is a guest post on behalf of The Economy Radiator Company
*Disclaimer: I received a payment for publishing this guest post.
