Emergency Furnace Shut Off Switches

Ever call a furnace repair guy and have the person on the other end of the phone ask, "Is your Emergency Switch Off?"

There is a reason for that. We have our switch inside a kitchen closet, not near any other switch, so if you are going to turn it off, you know that is definitely what you want to do.

In my daughter's double-wide, the switch was near the exit door and there were other switches there also. It was very easy to turn it off without realizing it.

The reason I mention this is that my daughter and her family were up from Bellows Falls this weekend and when they got home yesterday afternoon, the house was mighty cool. Someone apparently had shut off the Emergency Shut Off Switch for the furnace, something my daughter said they definitely will have to check the next time they leave for a few days.

We never left home that many times for that long a time, but do know that things can happen. One time I went down cellar (My only entrance to the cellar in earlier years was through a stairway in the garage) and noticed that the window in the door looked all steamy. I opened the door and it was like a steam bath in there. Shut the door and went back upstairs and shut off my Furnace Emergency Switch and called R. L. Vallee who came right out. The little tank up on top of the furnace was the culprit, but thank God I was home.

I have gone down stairs and found water pipe leaks, a sump pump that had stopped working and numerous other things. Always made me just a bit nervous to even think about how people leave their houses for the winter. Don't know as I could ever do that. Think you would almost need a house sitter.