The “Great Ice Storm of 2013”

This winter has come in like a Polar Bear.  First the Ice Storm bringing trees down on power lines and causing widespread blackouts, then the Arctic Vortex bringing some of the coldest weather seen in the GTA in over 20 years.

Binnie Mechanical has been up to the task of keeping our clients warm on the coldest nights. Here’s a comment from one of our customers:

The ice storm left us without power for 15 hours and then when the power came back on our furnace was not happy.  The mother-board had been damaged by a power surge.    I woke up around  3AM on Christmas morning and noticed that it seemed very cold and wondered if Santa had gotten stuck in the chimney.  So I left a voice mail on the Binnie hotline at 905-849-0297.  Pat called me back around 7:30 and Dave was here by 9:00AM, before having had his Christmas breakfast.  We were warm again by 10.

As always, excellent service from Binnie Mechanical!

Peter Wooster
Oakville

Some advice on what to do if the power goes off:

  • shut off the furnace so that it won’t be damaged when the power comes back on, modern furnaces are electronic equipment, just like your computer.
  • shut off all electronic equipment, computers, home theatre systems, automatic ovens, etc.
  • shut off all appliances with heating elements such as stoves and ovens, you don’t want them coming on unattended.
  • leave a tap slightly open to let the water keep moving, moving water doesn’t freeze as easily as still water.
  • don’t open the freezer door, unless necessary, it will hold its cold longer that way.
  • when the power comes back on check the freezer to see if the contents are still frozen.
  • consult an authority on what can be refrozen if some items have thawed.
  • get a whole home surge protector, your electrician can install one in your breaker panel.

Welcome to the Binnie blog

Welcome to our new website and our first ever blog post.  We hope everyone had a great Holiday and wish you all the best in the New Year.

This Holiday Season has been an exciting time in the home comfort business. We had the “Great 2013 Ice Storm” followed by the deep freeze of the “Arctic Vortex”. Furnaces have been doing yeoman service with winter just barely officially started. See our post the Great Ice Storm of 2013 for a story from one of our clients.