If You Heat Your Home With Oil, You Need To Know This…

I'm currently in the middle of a kitchen remodel, and learning a few things in the process. You may read this a be like, "duh, that's obvious". But, things change over the years and rules and/or codes become antiquated and such.

One thing I learned recently was that you can't just put the oil burner emergency switch anywhere in your home, and you STILL need that easily identifiable red switch plate cover.

The electrician working on my home had to move the location of my switch due to the remodel and he suggested it go right beside the door leading to the basement. While, that makes sense, I don't love the optics of when entering my home, the first thing you see is the emergency red plated shut off switch.

I mean, this is the pinnacle of first world problems, but that switch, and rightfully so, needs to be visible for safety reasons.

An emergency off switch for the building heating system should be found outside of the basement or other boiler or furnace room location and accessible so that an occupant can, in an emergency, turn off heat without having to enter a possibly smoky or dangerous area. -inspectapedia.com

So, we decided to put it on the wall on the right side of the stairs leading to the basement.

1. You can't really see it when you walk in to the house.

2. It's still complying with code.