Watch those pipes in your unheated basement

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
  • Super Cedar firestarters 30% discount Use code Hearth2024 Click here
Status
Not open for further replies.
Fins59 said:
Mobile Home dwellers should also be careful if they heat with wood. I don't live in a MH but had a friend who did. The first winter he heated with wood his water pipes froze. The pipes were under the floor along side the furnace ducts but since he didn't use furnace the pipes received no heat and in sub zero temps the wood heat wasn't enough to get through floor to pipes.

Then if that wasn't bad enough, instead of using his regular driveway, he made a temporary short-cut winter driveway. It so happened that his in-ground water supply pipe was beneath this driveway and even though it was 6' deep the constant driving of the car over this area forced the frost down to the pipe and froze it. He was a single guy so carrying water from the neighbor until the ground thawed wasn't too bad.

Mobile homes are a great application for ThermGuard. You program it to circulate air warmed by the stove through the heating ducts and it prevents the pipes from freezing.

www.bearmountaindesign.com

Cheers,
John
 
Jack Straw said:
Has anyone wired their thermoguard near their boiler? My thermostat is in my main hall near the front door and for aesthetic reasons I would prefer to hide it somewheres else.

You can put a ThermGuard anywhere you want. You just need access to the wires running from the thermostat. The boiler room is a perfect place to put a ThermGuard. Now about the whole question of astetics of the design :-)

Cheers,
John
 
bridgerman said:
Jack Straw said:
Has anyone wired their thermoguard near their boiler? My thermostat is in my main hall near the front door and for aesthetic reasons I would prefer to hide it somewheres else.

You can put a ThermGuard anywhere you want. You just need access to the wires running from the thermostat. The boiler room is a perfect place to put a ThermGuard. Now about the whole question of astetics of the design :-)

Cheers,
John

I think this must be at least the third post in 20 mins i've read where you are pushing this product. >:(

It's getting old already

pen
 
pen said:
bridgerman said:
Jack Straw said:
Has anyone wired their thermoguard near their boiler? My thermostat is in my main hall near the front door and for aesthetic reasons I would prefer to hide it somewheres else.

You can put a ThermGuard anywhere you want. You just need access to the wires running from the thermostat. The boiler room is a perfect place to put a ThermGuard. Now about the whole question of aesthetics of the design :-)

Cheers,
John

I think this must be at least the third post in 20 mins i've read where you are pushing this product. >:(

It's getting old already

pen

Sorry Pen...I haven't been on the site for a while so I am trying to catch up with the posts. The product genuinely works for the problems described and I am just trying to help folks with the concerns they have. No offense meant.

John
 
jf254 said:
Slow1 said:
Good point.

I've also been wondering about my hydro-air unit up in the attic. Last year it came on every night as we never had an overnight burn... so far this year we haven't used any oil while we are home. I wonder if I need to run it once in a while to keep those pipes from freezing or if enough heat leaks up there to keep them warm enough... if I do need to run it I wonder how often - need a thermostat that can be programmed to run for 5 minutes x times a day regardless of temperature.


There is a very good chance your pipes will freeze call your HVAC company and have a freezestat installed. It will kick on the circulator anytime that it hits whatever temp it is set for. We install one on every attic hydro air we install... cheap money compared to new ceilings..

I checked with my HVAC company. Answer back is that they put antifreeze into the loops that go outside of the conditioned space (i.e. the attic) so I should be fine unless we get an unusually cold period of time. I figure if we get one of those sub-zero period around here I'll be using the backup heat anyway...
 
You can also use a programmable thermostat. I have them in my house and I just program them to force the boiler to come on for 15 minutes to circulate hot water in my pipes every now and then. I'm just sayin if you already have them, program them properly... You can get them at the orange box or the blue box for 25 bucks.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.