{"id":28913,"date":"2025-10-31T04:08:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T04:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/28913\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T04:08:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T04:08:13","slug":"how-to-safely-heat-homes-as-cold-weather-arrives-in-east-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/28913\/","title":{"rendered":"How to safely heat homes as cold weather arrives in East Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

TYLER, Texas (KETK<\/a>) \u2013 Wednesday was the coldest night East Texas has had since the spring, with many heaters and fireplaces turning on for the first time this season.<\/p>\n

Lindale residents look to rebuild after being struck by EF-1 tornado on Tuesday <\/a><\/p>\n

As East Texas enters the cooler months it\u2019s important to check air conditioning and heating appliances sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

Many homeowners may start to smell a burning odor, HVAC specialist Joshua Templin\u00a0with C&R Heating and Cooling said this isn\u2019t anything abnormal. But Templin said if the odor lingers too long it could be a sign that dander is heating up or an appliance is malfunctioning.<\/p>\n

For those that use a traditional wood burning fireplace, it is recommended to have a protective screen, keeping embers from drifting out to your living room. Robert Sweeney has been in the chimney sweep business here in East Texas since he was 25.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes embers pop and land on your carpet,\u201d Sweeney said. \u201cSo you need a screen to protect yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

If your fire does get our of hand, here\u2019s what he recommends, \u201cIts called a Smoke Guard, its a stick, you throw it in your fireplace and it\u2019ll put your fire out in the fireplace. If you do have a chimney fire, that smothers it,\u201d Sweeney said.<\/p>\n

Preparations for winter should start well before the temperatures drop. Templin recommends preventative maintainence on your heating unit twice a year once before and once after winter. He also urged homeowners that now is the time to change air filters and carbon monoxide detectors.<\/p>\n

You can now stream KETK and FOX51 News live 24\/7 on your smart TV\u00a0with\u00a0KETK+<\/a>,\u00a0our brand-new app! No antenna, cable, or satellite needed\u2014watch for free, anytime.\u00a0Just download it on your Roku, Apple TV, or Fire TV and start streaming.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KETK.com | FOX51.com. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TYLER, Texas (KETK) \u2013 Wednesday was the coldest night East Texas has had since the spring, with many…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2604,12576,2608,19603,27,29,28,9011],"class_list":{"0":"post-28913","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-east-texas","9":"tag-hvac","10":"tag-ketk","11":"tag-robert-sweeney","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-texas-headlines","14":"tag-texas-news","15":"tag-tyler"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}