Air conditioners are installed to keep an establishment cool, in this case, a home. But they can also have an opposite effect once it becomes faulty or malfunctions. Faulty air conditioner can be very dangerous for you and your family. According to a study between 2005 and 2009, air conditioners have been the cause of an average of 2,346 home fires per year. These fire accidents have caused casualties, deaths, injuries, and property damage in millions of dollars per year during that span.

The study didn’t indicate clearly as to which kind of air conditioner has been the cause of these fires. But the data strongly suggests that it is between room ACs and central air conditioning units. The study does show that more than 27 perfect of these fire accidents started from bedrooms. While only 11 percent started from the air ducts. This goes to show that room ACs are the bigger culprit behind these fires.  This was further confirmed with an earlier report made by the US Fire Administration which shows that room ACs account for more than 55 perfect of all home fires even though they are just 35 percent of installations.

Prevention:

The main reason behind these AC related fires are electrical and mechanical failures. Short circuits are often the cause of AC catching fires. You should always do a routine inspection to prevent electrical mishaps from happening. You should also consider installing smoke alarms throughout the home and make sure that they are always in good condition to detect fire immediately and prevent it from getting big.

And the most important is to give your AC a proper maintenance so you can minimize the risk of electrical mishaps and also improving its performance and efficiency. For room ACs, you need to clean its filters or replaced them if needed be at least once a month. It would also be better if you hire a professional to do maintenance for your room AC or central air conditioning unit. This way you should be able to prevent any dangers from faulty air conditioners or prevent your AC unit from getting faulty or malfunctions.