Getting your heat on? :/
Oct 17th 2013, 3:22 pm
#61
Under blue skies
Joined: Mar 2011
Location: East Anglia->New England
Posts: 3,624
Re: Getting your heat on? :/
That sounds unduly conservative, though it depends on whether the pipes are insulated, how much water you use, and where the pipes are located. Certainly in Canada, pipes should not be located embedded in exterior walls, but down here it is common. For water to actually freeze the temperature inside the house where the pipes are located actually has to get down to freezing, but if the pipes are in an exterior wall, and not well insulated maybe you really do need to keep the temperatures at 50°F or more, though even in my opinion, that is pretty dämned cold for indoors! If you have pipes in a crawl space or unheated basement you could hang a 100w (or 2x60w) light bulb in the area as it will generate enough heat to make a difference without spending a fortune on extra heating for the whole house, especially if you're going away for a while and want to turn the heat down.
A neighboring house to me has had occasional problems with water freezing in the well head, in the middle of the front yard, so sometimes it is just a bad installation situation, and that house now has the well cover filled with attic insulation wrapped in plastic! In seriously cold weather they run a power cord out to feed an incandescent light which generates enough heat to keep the pipe from freezing, as I described above.
A neighboring house to me has had occasional problems with water freezing in the well head, in the middle of the front yard, so sometimes it is just a bad installation situation, and that house now has the well cover filled with attic insulation wrapped in plastic! In seriously cold weather they run a power cord out to feed an incandescent light which generates enough heat to keep the pipe from freezing, as I described above.
Our previous US landlord was very worried about freezing pipes, and wrote a clause into the lease that we could not set the thermostat below 50F in the winter. He was relieved when we agreed we didn't want to let the house get below around 55 even at night.
Just wondering if anyone has experienced burst pipes due to house temp being too cold? Usually it seems to be when people leave for a significant period of time and the temps outside drop drastically...
Last edited by WEBlue; Oct 17th 2013 at 3:40 pm.
Oct 17th 2013, 3:45 pm
#62
Joined: Dec 2001
Location: Dixie, ex UK
Posts: 52,448
Re: Getting your heat on? :/
so I am certain the supply pipes down below must have frozen solid), but most of my plumbing is PEX, which is flexible enough to be frozen and thawed without bursting or other damage.
Oct 17th 2013, 5:30 pm
#63
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Joined: Feb 2013
Location: State College Pa.
Posts: 1,585
Re: Getting your heat on? :/
), but most of my plumbing is PEX, which is flexible enough to be frozen and thawed without bursting or other damage.[/QUOTE]
please don't bet on it. I've seen failures where the joints on the ends have blown off, and I've fixed a split pipe once too
please don't bet on it. I've seen failures where the joints on the ends have blown off, and I've fixed a split pipe once too
Oct 17th 2013, 6:19 pm
#64
Deep in the woods of CT
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 7,002
Re: Getting your heat on? :/
Haven't had a burst, but my first house in CT had pipes that were too close to the outer wall in the kitchen and the first winter we were there they froze before we were aware of the problem. We gradually thawed them with a hairdryer and the tap opened and there was no burst. Thereafter, when it was cold enough we'd leave the doors of the cupboard under the kitchen sink open at night so that the warmth penetrated into the cubby hole with the pipes.
Oct 17th 2013, 6:42 pm
#65
Joined: Dec 2001
Location: Dixie, ex UK
Posts: 52,448
Re: Getting your heat on? :/
Oct 17th 2013, 7:01 pm
#66
.
Joined: Nov 2002
Location: Where bad things rarely happen in movies
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Re: Getting your heat on? :/
We don't normally get cold enough to cause problems, but an extended cold snap a couple of years ago caused 2 main problems. 1) lots of young palm trees died, and 2) the back flow preventers on a lot of folks sprinkler systems gave way. The kids loved riding round the neighborhood spotting all the new fountains! The opportunists came out and the going rate for repairs was around $300-$350
not a bad markup...I had to replace mine last summer, and it cost me $65 for the new valve, and less than 20 minutes to fit it. The year after the cold snap, everyone was lagging their valves at the slightest hint of cold weather
not a bad markup...I had to replace mine last summer, and it cost me $65 for the new valve, and less than 20 minutes to fit it. The year after the cold snap, everyone was lagging their valves at the slightest hint of cold weather
Oct 17th 2013, 7:34 pm
#67
SUPER MODERATOR
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 88,027
Re: Getting your heat on? :/
For the last few nights no air con upstairs...windows open...bedroom a nice cool 68f. Happy husband. 
Oct 17th 2013, 9:58 pm
#69
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Location: MA, USA
Posts: 92,172
Re: Getting your heat on? :/
I have a question. We've been told that household pipes will freeze over the winter if we don't keep the house thermostats set to around 55F .... or some say 50F is the absolute lowest we can risk. Is this true? (We have a wood stove and hot-water baseboards, if that makes any difference.)
Tend to see it in the pipes if you've got a dodgy septic tank installed or a under powered sumpump. Bathroom taps if they're exterior wall side, or kitchen sink, then on cold nights and especially if you're away, keep the cupboards open at night.
We've had a pipe split in the basement and one in the wall that had a slow leak caused by some ice splitting it slightly. Luckily, it was all in a rental so wasn't our problem to sort out.
Oct 18th 2013, 3:51 pm
#70
Under blue skies
Joined: Mar 2011
Location: East Anglia->New England
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Re: Getting your heat on? :/
Thanks to all who responded to my question on the chance of freezing pipes.
OK, thanks, I will definitely start doing this. The extent of baseboard heating in the kitchen is a bit minimal for the square footage of the room (most of the possible baseboard space being taken up by cupboards and appliances), and I noticed when we bought the house that the kitchen can be somewhat cooler than the rest of the house.
In this part of the country we get daily freezing or below temperatures from around mid-November till the end of March. Fun!
Haven't had a burst, but my first house in CT had pipes that were too close to the outer wall in the kitchen and the first winter we were there they froze before we were aware of the problem. We gradually thawed them with a hairdryer and the tap opened and there was no burst. Thereafter, when it was cold enough we'd leave the doors of the cupboard under the kitchen sink open at night so that the warmth penetrated into the cubby hole with the pipes.
In this part of the country we get daily freezing or below temperatures from around mid-November till the end of March. Fun!
Last edited by WEBlue; Oct 18th 2013 at 3:53 pm.
Oct 18th 2013, 5:23 pm
#71
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Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 5,154
Re: Getting your heat on? :/
So now it's getting a bit chilly out...who's got the heat on?
Me, holding out for as long as possible, still have windows open and need to bring in the window AC units but I'm putting it off because I can't be arsed with pulling down the storm windows and getting the caulk gun out and sealing the windows back up and all the other faff about sealing the windows up properly with draft excluder's and the like. :/
Me, holding out for as long as possible, still have windows open and need to bring in the window AC units but I'm putting it off because I can't be arsed with pulling down the storm windows and getting the caulk gun out and sealing the windows back up and all the other faff about sealing the windows up properly with draft excluder's and the like. :/
Oct 18th 2013, 5:25 pm
#72
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Posts: 2
Re: Getting your heat on? :/
A well designed system should drain back, so you have no potable water in the lines when winterised.
Oct 18th 2013, 6:04 pm
#73
Joined: Dec 2001
Location: Dixie, ex UK
Posts: 52,448
Re: Getting your heat on? :/
I have used Pex a lot both O2 Barrier and the regular, it can split, that would be unusual, more common would be for the joints to blow. It is not freeze proof, much easier to work with. You might get away with it a little bit where copper would split.
A well designed system should drain back, so you have no potable water in the lines when winterised.
A well designed system should drain back, so you have no potable water in the lines when winterised.
Usually we don't get anything that you, or I, would recognise as "winter" in these parts! 
Oct 18th 2013, 6:52 pm
#74
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Re: Getting your heat on? :/
Heat has been on here for about 3 weeks now, only getting up to the low 60s on the warmest days, with night falling into the mid to high 40's.
Heat is all electrical baseboard heaters.
Heat is all electrical baseboard heaters.
Oct 18th 2013, 8:27 pm
#75
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Joined: Jun 2007
Location: Houston, TX - Officially Not Shit since 2009
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Re: Getting your heat on? :/
No heating for us yet, today is the first day the a/c hasn't clicked on at some point, I even had a cardi on outside