When it comes to the major holiday season, one thing that you may notice in many homes, especially as we get closer and closer to the end of the year, are candles in the windows. Candles are a tradition during the Christmas and Hanukah season. Placing candles in the windows of one’s home dates back hundreds of years, but when it comes to senior home safety, you want to make sure that your loved one is safe, even if he or she decides to use candles in the window. Real candles tend to be risky when they are placed around windows. Even if there are no curtains or drapery, many older windows are made of wood and when the candle heats of the wood, this can lead to a fire.
However, most homes that do happen to have candles in the windows don’t use real candles. They use fake candles that utilize low watt bulbs. This should be no problem, right? Well, in reality, these fake candles actually have been known to cause fires for many homeowners throughout the holiday season. This is due to the fact that even though they are low wattage bulbs, they still put out some heat and the drapes or curtains, usually thin veils, that are cast down over the windows end up touching the bulbs and heat up, leading to burning of the material.
When you are not careful, then it can lead to serious problems, even a fire. Today there are LED style candles that don’t put out any real heat source and can be bright enough to go in any window.
Another thing to consider when it comes to senior home safety and candles in the windows is that even if your elderly loved one doesn’t plan on leaving the candles on all night, sometimes it’s easy to forget them and like a real candle, or the coffeepot or even the stove, when you forget about something that can produce heat, if it comes in contact with something that has a low combustion temperature (the temperature at which an item will catch fire), then that can lead to trouble.
This year, if your loved one enjoys the look of candles in the windows, get them a series of LED style lighted candles that will be safe and still look festive throughout the holiday season. It’s the best way to stay safe when using candles in the windows.
