AHHHHHHHHH 100 year old home......Pipes freeze???????

[Thomask9590]

I am now burning wood in a poorly insulated 100 year+ old house. Great idea on paper but the house was retro fitted with forced hot water. How do I keep the pipes from freezing. Some of the heating system pipes are run through little crawl spaces that usually have hot water running through them in the cold months. But now I am running a wood stove and the hot water system does not run much at all. How do I protect the pipes from freezing?????

 

[Nofossil]

Circulating water doesn't freeze as easily. You might run the circulator a few minutes every once in a while. That would get warmer water into the cold spots.

 

[pdboilermaker]

Go to Lowes, for about a dollar a 6 foot stick you can buy black pipe insulation

 

[Thomask9590]

I wish it was that easy, some of my pipes run right through he outside wall plate. Some run right along the base of the building too. :bug:

 

[Eric Johnson]

Is there any way isolate and drain the sections that you don't plan to use? Probably not.

When you say "retrofitted to forced hot water" are you talking about baseboards or cast iron radiators? If it's baseboards, you can probably put enough heating system glycol into the system to keep it from freezing. If you've got cast iron radiators, on the other hand, then it would cost too much because there's too much water in the system that would need to be replaced with glycol. I guess you could run heat tape under insulation for some of the sections.

Probably your best bet, however, would be to run your hot water heating system at its minimum setting and hope that enough heat and circulation reach the isolated runs. Like nofossil suggests, running your main circulator 24/7 would push warmer water from the rest of the house through all the pipes and probably keep it all liquid. That or just drain the whole thing for the winter and forget about it.

 

[Vtgent49]

I live in ski towns,l between Stowe and Sugarbush. So, the heating guys know that these houses are often empty. They really push for anti-freeze in the system, so thay are safe when the power goes out.

I put RV type antifreeze in my solar system, so I can ignore it in the winter. 40-50 below rated. Better check with you serviceman.

Al

 

[steam man]

Insulating pipes and getting them into the building heating "envelope" should be first priority. Heat tapes in problem areas could be considered. Possibly using a thermostatic switch on the problem pipes to run the circ could be used. As said above, consider using glycol in your system. Each problem area could have its own solution.

Mike

 

[Chief Ryan]

Glycol (antifreeze) the hot water loop.

Drain the entire system and pump in glycol with a small pony pump. Run the pumps for a while then test. Add glycol or water until you reach the desired level of freeze protection.

Problem solved forever. Just remember to shut off your makeup water after you glycol. Test every Fall.

Good Luck

 

[steam man]

Glycol should be a last resort. It is expensive, prone to leaks, and doesn't transfer heat as well. That being said, if you go that route, get a professional to help you out. Do not use RV grade-use a good quality made for hydronic systems. It has the required protection unlike rv grade which is made to be used once and drained.

Mike

 

[Dave T]

How would somebody go about draining the lines do you open the highest vent and the lowest sill cock and hope for the best or is there a good way to make sure the lines are drained?? Dave

 

[steam man]

Blowing air through the lines works good. Just letting it blow until it dries out as best you can. I like to shut all the vents, pump in air to a safe pressure and then open the drain valve quickly and repeat a number of times. That will get the the heavy pockets of water out.

Mike

 

[Dave T]

Good tips Mike Thanks, so with the usefull areas shut off, an air compressor blowing at about 25 PSI and no vents open, then open and close the low boiler drain on the system to build up pressure and release it. Will this get enough water out of that part of the system so even if it did freeze no damage would occur to those pipes or radiators??? Dave

 

[steam man]

Usually the sudden rush of air would be enough to move the heavy pockets of water. You'll notice the drain getting drier each time you do it. Just keep checking it. I try to drain down both the send and return legs if possible, especially if there are any check valves in the lines. If your going to leave the zone drained try and leave drains open.

Mike

 

[Duetech]

A manual bypass switch on your circulator would keep the water flowing and still leave the the water system ready to hand in case of a problem with the wood stove like a wind storm or iced over wood pile. I put in an EKO 40 two years ago and the over all change to my electric bill was only about $10 per month. That includes one circulator (Taco 007) running most of 24-7-365 on manual. Your circulator might be different but at least your system would still be available and not frozen where draining it would render it unserviceable and maybe force you to flush it before being able to use it. Even one spot that did not drain in an area prone to freezing would likely force repairs before the system could be used...Stay warm...Cave2k

 

[bridgerman]

You might add a ThermGuard to your thermostat. It is designed to solve this exact problem. It is basically a timer that connects to your thermostat and circulates a small amount of water periodically throught your heating pipes to keep them from freezing. You can program it to send 5 minutes of hot water every 2-3 hours and the pipes should never freeze up. I have a hot water heat system in my home and when it got really cold and wind blew, my heating pipes froze because my wood stove kept the room with the thermostat at 70 degrees. The thermostat never called for hot water and in an unheated area of my home (over my garage) my heating pipes froze and burst. That was a very expensive problem to fix. Another time, my mother was staying at my house while I was out of town and a pipe along an outside wall burst. It leaked water until my well went dry trying to re-charge the pressure in heating lines. The whole downstairs area needed to have the carpet replaced and lots of drywall work.

I designed ThermGuard to solve this problem. It is a microprocessor controlled timer that needs no maintenance since it has no batteries. Just switch it on when the weather is cold and switch it off when you don't need it. It remembers your program even when the power is off. The web site offers information as well as a FAQ section: www.bearmountaindesign.com or your can just google ThermGuard.

You can search this forum for many folks that are using it and were very happy with the results. There is a 10% discount for hearth.com members and free shipping. It comes to $62.99 with the discount and that is a small price to pay for peace of mind, let alone repairing all the damage that a broken pipe can cause.

I hope that helps! I would be happy to answer any questions and work with individuals on specific problems.

Cheers,
John