Water pipes freezing?

[Lloyd Danforth]

Ian:  Is your house old?  How many stories?  Do you have a full basement?  What's your main heat source? 

Hubby says:  Since heat rises, make sure your basement is well insulated, and try and establish a primary and secondary heat source that will keep your basement warm (thus water pipes), and the heat will rise keeping first floor warmer, too (and your feet nice and toasty!).  We heat with two woodstoves - one in basement and one on first floor (3 floor home).  Wood's still relatively inexpensive...and you can go scrounging around for wood in the national forests for a nominal fee.  As a back-up, we have an Empire LP heater in our basement, which requires no electricity to operate, as well as a 150,000 btu oil furnace, which we haven't used in two years.  We live in the boonies, relatively speaking, and the longest our power has gone out in the winter is 12-14 hours.  Never had a problem with pipes freezing. 

Hubby grew up in an old farmhouse with a stone foundation and partial basement.  They never had a problem with pipes freezing either. 

In another thread people were talking about the need for a generator.  Why?  If the power goes out and you have back-up heat and candles, then what else do you really need?  Don't need to worry about refrigeration, because the assumption is it's cold and your food can be kept outside. 

Ian need 'lectricity to run his radio empire

http://freetalklive.com/

[FTL_Ian]

Ian:  Is your house old?  How many stories?  Do you have a full basement?  What's your main heat source? 

1890s.  2 & full basement.  Oil furnace.  Though we're looking into these: http://eheat.com

We live in the boonies, relatively speaking, and the longest our power has gone out in the winter is 12-14 hours.  Never had a problem with pipes freezing. 

Good to know, thank you!

[KBCraig]

Though we're looking into these: http://eheat.com

Hmmm. If you are concerned at all about how to power your furnace when the electricity is out, then you don't even want to know what kind of draw resistant electric heat will put on your system!

Those panels might make a nice supplement for cold rooms, but I couldn't really find any information on the site about how many units are required per hundred square feet. I do detect a whiff of snake oil, though: when they compare the cost of operation to other systems, they compare one panel to whole-house systems!

I notice the smaller, 260 watt unit claims to heat 50 square feet, roughly a very small bathroom. The larger units are 425 watts. Do the math on that at 5.2 watts per square foot, and calculate how many per room/how many for the whole house, and your electrical service might not be big enough to handle the load.

Kevin

[FTL_Ian]

Hmm.. thanks for bringing that into perspective.  How much oil does heating a 1300sqft home require in the month of January up here?

Eventually, I'll find out.    This will certainly be a learning process.

[KBCraig]

Another thing: there's no such thing as "square feet" when it comes to heating calculations. You're heating cubic feet of air, not square feet. When a heater or air conditioner says it handles "x" square feet, it's assuming 8' ceilings. Few older homes have 8' ceilings, so you have to calculate the difference if you have higher ceilings.

Kevin

[mvpel]

I think the idea of leaving a faucet dripping is to provide somewhere for the expanding ice to go if the pipes do freeze, instead of through the walls of the pipes.

[AlanM]

I think the idea of leaving a faucet dripping is to provide somewhere for the expanding ice to go if the pipes do freeze, instead of through the walls of the pipes.

Leaving a faucet dripping is an attempt to keep the pipes from freezing. The water coming from the pipes outside is at approx. 55%. By keeping water moving through the system, the 55% water is being introduced to the pipes inside the house and the water that is colder is being pushed out.

[MaineShark]

You're both right.  And, additionally, as micro-crystals begin to form, they will (hopefully) be flushed out before they have a chance to seed larger crystals.

Joe

[FrankChodorov]

Another thing: there's no such thing as "square feet" when it comes to heating calculations. You're heating cubic feet of air, not square feet. When a heater or air conditioner says it handles "x" square feet, it's assuming 8' ceilings. Few older homes have 8' ceilings, so you have to calculate the difference if you have higher ceilings.

inorder to do a proper heat loss calculation to size a heating system you are going to need as a minimum:

1. the insulation value of the walls, ceiling and floors
2. the infiltration rate
3. the average wind speed, heating degree days and solar gain

[MaineShark]

And the dimensions of the house (ie, the blueprint).  And the number, type, and location of windows and doors.  And the outdoor design temperature (coldest sustained 24 temp... -10 on southern NH; colder as you go north).  And the indoor design temp (ie, how warm do you want to keep your house?).

Joe

[Lloyd Danforth]

You're both right.  And, additionally, as micro-crystals begin to form, they will (hopefully) be flushed out before they have a chance to seed larger crystals.

Joe

I guess you don't want to dangle a string with a micro-crystal on the end of it in the works

[PinoX7]

Micro-crystals are delicious