Alert to pellet burners.....watch for frozen pipes

Just thought I'd throw out a reminder to check your pipes if the pellet stove is keeping the "backup" heat system shut off during these real cold days/nights. Just saw a ServPro guy down the street cleaning up after some broken pipes in a NEW home.

Bought this little life saver a few years ago.....keeps those pipes from freezing in unheated areas:

http://www.bearmountaindesign.com

EDIT: I just remembered that forum member "bridgerman" is the distributor for these....if you contact him he should be able to give you a discount code for 10%(?) off and free shipping.

My pipes froze in my front kids playroom last year - luckily they didn't rupture the coppah.
Good reminder.
I have my T-Stat for the Nat Gas hydronic boiler set near the temp of the room that the pellet stove is running in - that way it may call for heat at times during this cold blast we're having.

Got the PDVC in the basement running to keep my floors and pipes warm. I'd rather pay my pellet supplier than the oil man.

That's why I put the cook stove down in my man cave. If she locks me down there, at least I can stay warm and cook

Whenever it is in the low teens I worry about the baseboard pipes. We keep the top level of our house closed off and it gets real chilly up there. Probably never gets below freezing but I'd rather turn that zone on before going to bed and before going to work just to be safe. My basement never gets below 50 so I don't worry as much about the piping down there but still will turn on the other two oil heat zones for 5 minutes tonight before bed.

Now that you mention it the only thing throwing heat in the basement would be the electric water heater. My house was electricity heated and no baseboards were installed the basement. Don't know if that's standard procedure or not. I just checked and it's 50 deg down there. About as cold as i have seen it. Did remove some insulation between some floor joists a few years back.

X2, my stove keeps my boiler and pipes warm!

Nothing new here. Our kitchen pipes froze every year even with the furnace on since they are in a crawl space and not the basement.

Had to go the heat tape route a few years ago.

I went through the baseboard pipe freezing back in '79, got educated quickly. Pipes didn't burst but they froze. Used my wifes hair dryer to thaw out the frozen sections, which were usually on the north side of the house, while the zone pumps were calling for heat as soon as they thawed, the hot water started flowing.
Wood stove was moved to the basement the next year and I haven't had a problem since. Athought on the 2nd floor I will run the base board heat in these temps. just to circulate and avoid problems. JMO

I installed two Thermo guards a couple of years ago and the peace of mine I have now Is well worth the price
Jim

Amen to that. Don't have to worry about forgetting to turn the zone on for a few minutes.....

Install a second stove.......

(Options and Savings. Thats what its all about)

Maybe this will help somebody somewhere some day

A thoughtfully placed drop i light can save the day.

I have a few hot tub repairs going on, inside the cabinet I left a drop light or two running, wont have any probs..

Btw only works with traditional bulbs, as they make the heat.. Thought I'd throw that detail @ you pigs trying to save a nickel by using c f d bulbs

For the small amount that ThermGuard costs, and the $3-4 a night it cost to run the burner ( I only use it on nights the temp gets below 25), I'm saving a LOT of $$ vs buying a new stove, piping, install costs, more pellets, etc, etc.

Not necessarily more pellets.

Plus. Buying Dino juice, costs more than pellets??

I save over $3k a year. My ROI is shorter than most and everything I have, has paid for itself.

Some see a second stove as an added expense?

But a used stove (or AMFM) and venting is cheaper than 500 gal of oil or LP at $4 a gal.

$2k on a stove and pellets one year. Yes. But only the cost of pellet's every yr thereafter? Priceless.

So.you spend $2k this year. You only spend an extra $200 next year. Instead of the $2,000.

At $3-$4 a night... Thats a bag or more of pellets.

Again. Its all about options. It takes money to save money. Whether it's 1 stove or 2 stove's. My Wife hates to here it, but it takes money to save money and it takes money to make money.

That's why I'm burnin' Dex. Rather spend 1K on pellets than 3K on oil. Heated my house with free firewood for 33 years. I just can't bring myself to buy more oil.

For the last 40 years my oil usage was 500 to 600 gal. per year
I got my winter delivery 8/10/12 of a fill up
On 12/31/12 I needed 105 gal Because I am home now(Retired) and run the pellet stove 17 hours a day
Less than a gal. per day making hot water for shower,dish washing and running the boiler between 10:00 P.M. and 5:00 A.M.= $3.00
Boiler nozzle uses 1/2 GPH So if the Thermo guard comes on and runs the boiler 10 min. every 4 hours I will use 1/2 gal. of oil =$2:00
The people next door have a wood stove and last year we had a cold stretch Yep you guested It frozen pipes in a inside wall
Total bill just under $3000.00
Lesson learned you do reach a point where there are times you should and have to run the oil If the water pipes are still there.
As I said before the Thermo Guard Is one of my better investments

well said.

Only have 15 feet of cooper lines that run under a crawl space.whenI installed the stove I heat traced and wrapped the copper lines and added a thermostat that will turn the heat trace on when the temp drops below 40 so my pipes don't freeze .but good reminder to everyone

I also ran both zones for a few minutes last night and when I woke up this morning. I have the oiler stat set 2 degrees below the current temperature just in case.

Having some hot water baseboard pipes in a crawl space, I manually open the zone valve for that area so water circulates thru there when heating other areas of the house or making domestic hot water.... during this real cold spell

My pipes froze last night......Despite antifreeze in my boiler. Given it got down to about 20 below last night, the anti-freeze was apparently not enough. I'm hoping like hell they don't burst while I'm at work today and hopefully I can find where the line has frozen and thaw it out when I get home. I should have set the thermostat to the ambient room temp. so it ran a bit last night and kept them from freezing. I could kill myself this morning as I know better. Clearly the anti-freeze idea is only good to a certain temperature.

I would like to know whether the remote thermometer I have in the unheated crawl space, where the furnace has been off since I started using the pellet stove earlier this month, indicates any kind of useful information about the temperature of the pipes. It was reading 38 degrees last night while it was 11 degrees outside. I would sincerely appreciate any help with this. I have forced air but have covered the vents and the returns as the air coming up was sold.

I'm glad my stove wasn't enough last night. I ran all 3 zones for about an hour to get the house up to temp and then the stove was able to maintain it for most the night.