Frozen Pipes? When to Start Getting Nervous?

[Rokal]

This is my first year with the pellet stove so far it has heated my 2400 sf home without assistance from my hot water baseboard oil heat. My house has insulation in the exterior walls as well as foam board insulation under the siding.

At what outside temperature should I consider turning on the boiler to circulate the water in the pipes?

The Thermguard looks like an interesting solution but I have line voltage.

 

[kinsmanstoves]

Put a thermometer in the basement. When the temp hovers below 50 I would cycle the boiler.

Eric

 

[webbie]

A couple inexpensive monitors would help you out - you can even set alarms to email you.....

Put them where you think pipes are close to the foundation, etc....
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/62284/

 

[Pellet-King]

44 in my basement with electric hot water, just fired up the kerosene heater as it's Football time in the Mancave later!!
92" PJ screen in glorious HD, a 30 pack of beer, Rib's cooking in the crockpot.......go GB

 

[bridgerman]

This is my first year with the pellet stove so far it has heated my 2400 sf home without assistance from my hot water baseboard oil heat. My house has insulation in the exterior walls as well as foam board insulation under the siding.

At what outside temperature should I consider turning on the boiler to circulate the water in the pipes?

The Thermguard looks like an interesting solution but I have line voltage.

Hi Rokal,

You have line voltage at your thermostats? That is very unusual unless you have electric baseboard heat. You might double check that because ThermGuard is exactly what you are looking for. I have a simple schematic I could send you that shows how to use ThermGuard with line voltage if you would like to see it. It just sounds kinda strange.

Cheers,
John

 

[halfpipe]

I always Leave two drips going when the temp drops to -10c one in the porch faucet and the other a kitchen faucet
Moving water is a lot harder to freeze than standing water
I try to get the faucet going with the tiniest stream possible, just a bit more than drip drip drip
works for me and I have exposed pipes under the house (wiith pipe insulation)

 

[bridgerman]

I always Leave two drips going when the temp drops to -10c one in the porch faucet and the other a kitchen faucet
Moving water is a lot harder to freeze than standing water
I try to get the faucet going with the tiniest stream possible, just a bit more than drip drip drip
works for me and I have exposed pipes under the house (wiith pipe insulation)

You need to be a little careful about the drip drip system. I have heard of the water moving so slowly through the drain pipes, they freeze solid where they exit the house. When you flush a toilet or run a faucet the flow moves fast enough not to allow freezing.

 

[Don2222]

Hello

I have an unheated garage with DHW pipes and baseboard heating pipes not on running through it. Since my pellet stove is in the basement next to the garage, I open the insulated metal door a crack on really cold nights so the heat will keep the garage above 32 degrees. It works.

There is a new product for protecting water pipes down to -30 degrees called Ice-Loc
http://www.iceloc.com/How_To.html

Also on about.com are 8 pages of some good tips on frozen pipes in your home.

http://homerepair.about.com/od/plumbingrepair/ss/thaw_frzn_pipe.htm

From Page 5 of 8
Preventing Frozen Pipes
There are a few things you can do to prevent the problem of freezing pipes from occurring again.

* Leave the faucet drip slightly as a trickle. The dripping water will keep the water in the pipe from freezing.
* Open kitchen base cabinet and let room air circulate.
* Open kitchen base cabinet and place a small portable heater near or in it to heat the pipes
* Wrap the problem pipe with electrical heat tape.
* Insulate the problem pipes with foam insulation wrap, especially those that run through unheated spaces.
* Temper the currently unheated crawlspace by placing a heater in the crawlspace. You just need to elevate the crawlspace temperature to modestly above freezing, about 40°F.

 

[St_Earl]

i'm concerned about my basement (pipes) in the new house. lower northern maine.
we plan on heating our 924 sq. ft. house with (probably) a heatilator ps10.
but the stove will be upstairs . leaving the basement unheated.

there is an oil furnace in the house now. and it has a register vent for the basement right on the furnace itself.
we would really like to only run the furnace the bare minimum to keep it in working order. and not burn oil for heat at all if possible.
the house hasn't had frozen pipes in at least a several decades (if ever) but the basement would always have had the furnace to keep the temp up.

i'm thinking a possibility to keep the basement not warm per se, but above critical temp., would be to use the fan setting on the furnace.
my understanding is that that will take the air from upstairs back through the cold air return and circulate it throughout the house.
we have a digital thermometer i can use to monitor what ends up coming out the basement furnace register.

i think i would just close all the upstairs registers to get max output from the single basement register.(and through any leaks in the ducting.)
i'm going to foam insulate the walls down there down to two feet above the floor. and i will be able to tell if circulating with the fan setting does anything to help.

the ps10 should have a good amount of headroom for our house's footage.
if it doesn't work, at least running the oil burner is still an option.

 

[Bkins]

You don't mention how big the basement is or if ita the same size as the house. I would use a Vornado digital heater set to come on at 45 or so. It will cost a small amount of money to run but not like a furnace. Any small electric digital heater would work. You want something that will go on/off automatically so you don't have to worry about it. How many pipes do you need to worry about? Might also consider a thermostatically controlled heating pipe wrap if you don't have a lot of pipe to worry about.

 

[St_Earl]

thanks, bkins. the basement is as big as the house. but we are going to close part of it off for a root cellar. there is no plumbing in that section.
those are both good suggestions i hadn't thought of. though i have seen that tape before. just never paid much attention because it wasn't a need.
i've never lived anywhere where this was much of an issue.
well. oddly enough, people's pipes were bursting all the time during above zero cold snaps in western oregon.
but we used the drip method and never had mishaps.
this will be my first new england winter. and also the first time i've owned the home i live in.
looking at an average low temp of 2 degrees in january in millinocket. with 20 below being the extreme.

i'd have to add the load of the heater to the list of what the emergency generator will be running as well.
that's a lot of watts.

i'm chomping at the bit to close on this house. the lawyer has the paperwork now and is doing his thing. but the sellers have another month to be finished clearing the place out.

what we really need to know is how cold the basement actually gets.

i'm actually still toying with the idea of circulating air to the basement if needed.
i'm thinking a good small fan could work to circulate air via the return. or even just in the basement stairwell and leave the door open a crack.
if it works, i'd even consider opening up one section of duct in the basement and placing the fan in one of the upstairs registers for a straight shot, ducted effect.
could even put it on a timer if it didn't need constant running to achieve a minimum temp.
that way (if it worked) i wouldn't have to double the size of the generator just to account for a space heater during outages.


maybe i'll get lucky and the basement won't get to that critical temp.
we'll know soon enough though.
for now i'll insulate the walls and monitor the temps this winter.

 

[olf20]

We have a 3000+ sq ft home. Upstairs, main floor, and basement.
We have hot water base board heat for our main heat. We heat our
main level with two AES Countryside stove burning corn.
Unless the temperature gets down to zero we do not turn
on our boiler.
However some of the upstairs pipes are in the attic and prone to
freezing.
I purchased a temperature controller from ebay and put the sensor
out side to monitor the temperature. When the temperature gets to
26 - 27 I have the circulating pump turn on and circulate the water
thru the zones that are exposed to the freezing temperatures.
I also monitor the temperature of the water (outside of pipe) in
the coldest spot to ensure that the water temperature does not
get close to freezing.
Has worked very well for over 5 years with little or no attention.
olf20 / Bob

 

[imacman]

We have a 3000+ sq ft home. Upstairs, main floor, and basement.
We have hot water base board heat for our main heat. We heat our
main level with two AES Countryside stove burning corn.
Unless the temperature gets down to zero we do not turn
on our boiler.
However some of the upstairs pipes are in the attic and prone to
freezing.
I purchased a temperature controller from ebay and put the sensor
out side to monitor the temperature. When the temperature gets to
26 - 27 I have the circulating pump turn on and circulate the water
thru the zones that are exposed to the freezing temperatures.
I also monitor the temperature of the water (outside of pipe) in
the coldest spot to ensure that the water temperature does not
get close to freezing.
Has worked very well for over 5 years with little or no attention.
olf20 / Bob

Not a bad system Bob. Many of us have gone this route....then nothing has to be watched:

www.bearmountaindesign.com