Reminder to all members

When the temps get down to single digits as they are tonight I run my faucets at a drip during the evening. I have 2 bathrooms along outside walls and one year the pipes froze. I was lucky and put an electric heater in the room and was able to de-thaw before the pipe burst. I had a neighbor who went to Florida for a week and set the thermostats to 50 and busted several pipes causing thousands in damage. Keeping temps set at 60 degrees or above is probably a good idea. Of course you can also shut down the water supply and drain if leaving for an extended period of time. Beach houses on Fire Island usually do that as part of prep for winter.

Good post and something to think about.

Luckily my cold water runs warm for 20 seconds during the heating season.

begreen said:

It's not a bad thing during these cold snaps to let the furnace or boiler cycle a few times or more a day. Pipes freeze more easily when there's no heat in the basement. If nothing else run an electric heater down there set to low.

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My fairly new "high-efficiency" oil boiler does that automatically about every 2 hours, which irritates the hell out of me since it sounds like dollar bills burning up. But it does keep the thing working right. A few years ago, I thought I was smart by turning it off completely from spring to the first really super-cold winter night, and paid the price because the valves got clogged with scale and wouldn't work right. An expensive emergency call later, I learned my lesson. I still turn the damn thing off during the summer months, but I turn it back on in fall and let it do its little fuel-burning exercises multiple times a day so it's ready to cope when I really need it.

kennyp2339 said:

Just a friendly reminder to all members that heat with wood, pellets, or any other type of "Alternative heat" this cold weather is in full swing across the majority of the lower 48 and Canada, for those of us that have back up heat that requires water circulation "baseboard, or radiator" please don't forget to cycle the water to prevent frozen pipes. Last year there were many cases of broken cause lots of damage, I don't want anyone to go through this. Thanks all!

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Good reminder

Can someone explain to me- how one can have frozen pipes with the thermostat at 50? Is it that there is a cold area somewhere in the circulation system where it gets under 32, and if the pipes freeze there?

Thermostat is often in the middle or at least more interior of the house. Pipes often run to the periphery of the house somewhere (usually pipes in a bathroom blow up frequently since they are often located at the side of the house rather then be located in the middle of the house).

If a pipe is running in a peripheral wall and the house is set to 50 the peripheral wall could easily get to freezing if it is 0 or below outside. If there is any possible draft into the wall from o/s as well that will definitely cause cold air to rush into walls of the house (think drafty electrical outlet...everyone should burn an incense stick once every so often and walk around the entire house to every electrical outlet, window, door ect to evaluate for any drafts).

Usually it is a pipe at the periphery of the house that bursts. Most baseboard heat is also situated on the periphery of the house and under windows to boot.

With the temps dropping to near 0*F overnight, I told the Wife to let the stove burn down, set the thermostat in the Bedroom (top level) to 69*F....the Living Room (middle level) to 64*F, and the Family Room (lower level....rarely used) to 50*F.......I hate to pay the Oil man, but would hate to pay the Plumber even more

it rarely gets cold enough in this area to warrant much concern about pipes freezing. Mine run along the interior of the floor joists in the basement. without heat, i've seldom seen it get below 55-60 down there. that said, i have the summit going in the basement and the jotul running upstairs. with it 10 -20 degrees continuous for a couple of days, it did start to raise concern for the potential of freezing....especially from the well to the house.

kennyp2339 said:

When I woke up this morning (5am) I switched on both zones on heat for about 5 min, until the returns got warm. I rather burn a little oil then pay for a plumber, sheet rocker, paint and clean.

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....i hear that, i normally set my furnace to 60-65 when i go to bed at night just in case they die down a little too much.