SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Before autumn delivers its first cold snap, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) reminds customers to call early for their free heater-pilot relight and natural gas appliance safety check.
Calling early will help ensure a more timely response before temperatures drop and the number of pilot relight requests significantly rises.
Customers can schedule a pilot relight and appliance safety check online by using the "My Energy" feature at www.pge.com, or by calling PG&E's 24-hour customer service line at 1-800-743-5000.
When temperatures are forecast to plummet in parts of Northern and Central California, PG&E will reallocate personnel to where they are needed most and tightly coordinate schedules and communications-all to respond to customer requests as quickly as possible.
PG&E urges its customers to be cautious with home heating. Here are helpful tips and information:
- Never use products inside the home that generate dangerous levels of carbon monoxide, such as generators, barbecues, propane heaters and charcoal.
- When using the fireplace to stay warm, make sure the flue is open so that the byproducts of combustion can vent safely through the chimney.
- Carbon monoxide is a colorless, tasteless and odorless gas produced by the burning of fossil fuels and wood. If unsafe concentrations of carbon monoxide are not detected, the result can be fatal.
- In general, properly installed and maintained natural gas appliances produce very little to no carbon monoxide.
- As part of customers' gas service, PG&E representatives are available to inspect gas appliances and make sure they are working safely.
- For more winter heating safety information, go to www.pge.com/safetycentral.
As always, customers who smell the distinctive "rotten egg" odor of natural gas in and around their home or business should get everyone out of and upwind of the building. Then call 911 and PG&E at 1-800-743-5000.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas and electric utilities in the United States. Based in San Francisco, with 20,000 employees, the company delivers some of the nation's cleanest energy to 15 million people in Northern and Central California. For more information, visit http://www.pge.com/about/newsroom/ and www.pgecurrents.com.
SOURCE Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E)
