Handyman Tips: Keep an old-style phone around

EDITOR’S NOTE: Handyman Tips is a new bi-weekly column by Lucerne Valley resident Glen Davidson, who worked as an electrical facility engineer for Northrop 20 years before retiring and working as a handyman. E-mail him at kguyglen@sbcglobal.net if you have a comment or question.

By GLEN DAVIDSON

In this day of telephones that do it all, remember that these fancy phones require electricity.

A lot of emergencies happen when the power is out. If your cell phone is dead you won’t be able to charge it, and if your landline phone is one of those new cordless types, it won’t work without electricity.

So make sure that at least one phone in your house does not plug into an electrical outlet but only the phone outlet. This will ensure it is still working during a power failure. These old-style phones are cheap — around $10 or less — and can even be stored in the closet and just plugged in when needed.

• WINTER SAFETY TIPS: Never use an extension cord with an electric heater. Common household extension cords cannot handle the current used by electric heaters and will create a fire hazard.

Heaters that produce a flame should not be used indoors. If it produces a flame, it’s also producing deadly carbon monoxide.

• DID YOU FEEL THAT?: You’re sitting on the couch next to a big window and everything is closed up because it’s cold out tonight. But you still feel a breeze.

No, this is not your imagination. It’s caused by the difference in temperature between the outside of the window and the inside, plus the difference between the ceiling and floor temperatures. This causes an air flow up the inside of the window and around the room in a circular motion.

This is usually a good thing, as it keeps your air circulating. It can also blow light curtains to the extent that they set off motion sensing alarms, causing false alarms when your not home and making it difficult to figure out why.