Advice For Those Not Used To Cold Temperatures!

[Willie5String]

Watch the pipes!

I live in Northern Illinois, 2 years ago I had a pipe break in the wall in the summer. I replaced all my plumbing with PEX that runs at the ceiling inside crown molding on interior walls.

While it sucked that I had the pipe break and ruin a kitchen and bathroom floor, it could have been so much worse, there was a pipe that ran 3/4 the length of the house in the unheated attic....and some numb nuts wrapped part of it in heat tape!

Wife work for an insurance company, during 2008, a repo that was insured was left unheated during winter, the neighbors realized that there were busted pipes when the saw the water flowing out of the windows.

 

[bobdabilder]

Yeah, but those other states can at least lament over not being Forida.
Fixed it for you.

Yeah, but those other states can at least brag about not being Florida.

 

[5StringBlues]

I'm just gonna leave this here.......

 

[fourstringdrums]

No gas or kerosene stoves or heaters of any kind indoors (or cars in garages) without adequate fresh air to let in oxygen and let out fumes and carbon monoxide. Don’t even think about using charcoal. Some people die every winter from trying to use charcoal for heat in a closed area. Carbon Monoxide is an invisible odorless gas that will kill you if it builds up. You’ll just fall asleep and never wake up. If you have a CO detector, then definitely use it.

You won’t believe how much cold air will come in through cracks around windows and doors. When it drops to 15F or less, you can really feel the drafts. Masking tape for painting will block it and will be easy to get off later. When it warms up, you might want to caulk all those cracks you found.

People have already died from running the car in the garage to try and get heat.

 

[lordradish]

Hiking Mt. Washington and Monroe in negative 30 degree temps.... FOR FUN!

But in all seriousness, I get southerners may not have heating systems, plow trucks etc. Stay safe enjoy the snow!
View attachment 4170536 View attachment 4170532

I live for that stuff. I'll never forget the time I camped out at the foot of Mt Madison in 35 below.

 

[lordradish]

Yeah, but those other states can at least lament over not being Forida.
Fixed it for you.

Yeah, don't think so, unless we're jealous of the lunacy.

 

[bobdabilder]

I'm not a shrink so can't help with that.

Yeah, don't think so, unless we're jealous of the lunacy.

 

[WarwickE36]

I live for that stuff. I'll never forget the time I camped out at the foot of Mt Madison in 35 below.

Right on! Down at the base or by Madison Spring Hut? I'll probably camp out at Tuckerman Ravine this winter... Lookin to do Mt. Isolation on Friday!

 

[Carl Hillman]

Isn’t Texas on its own power grid for tge most part? One that’s not connected to the rest of the country? I heard something on NPR about how Texas is basically an energy island.

Yep. Texas politicians wanted the 'invisible hand' of the market be the regulator of public utilities instead of "big government". Problem with that, of course, is that ERCOT isn't going to build infrastructure above the usual demand, unless there's a law that says they have to. That would cut into profit, don't you know.

...so much for borrowing power from the rest of the utility companies on either of the two national grids if you’re running into emergency demand levels.

Yeah, All those Texas pols who were laughing at California's grid problems are now looking like morons. It would be funny if people weren't freezing.

Anyway, good luck with what’s happening. Losing power is no joking matter. Hope you make it through with minimal issues.

Thanks!

 

[40Hz]

Yep. Texas politicians wanted the 'invisible hand' of the market be the regulator of public utilities instead of "big government". Problem with that, of course, is that ERCOT isn't going to build infrastructure above the usual demand, unless there's a law that says they have to. That would cut into profit, don't you know.

Yeah. I thought by now that the economists had pretty thoroughly debunked the notion of so-called "free" markets. Because there's really no such thing. Any market that is unregulated ultimately descends into chaos. Why you'd want that for something as essential as a utility is beyond me. But nobody in charge tends to listen to the real economists. Texas isn't alone in that. Not by a long shot. We have energy brokers up here. They promise to get you a better rate than your local state regulated utility company provides. They shop around buying and selling power delivery contracts, give you a slightly better rate (sometimes) and pocket the difference in the spread for their profit. It's really just good old fashioned arbitrage applied to electricity futures. Anybody up here I knew who tried it ended up regretting it. And paying more over the long run.

Yeah, All those Texas pols who were laughing at California's grid problems are now looking like morons. It would be funny if people weren't freezing.

Agree. It displays bad form to go around laughing at someone else's misfortune. It has a way of coming back to bite you. I feel bad for what you guys are going through. I never blame the population of a state for decisions that were supposedly made with their best interests in mind by a small group of individuals.

And yeah...some of those TX pols who were slagging CA were being pretty nasty considering those outages followed in the wake of what CA was going through with all those wildfires. Kinda hard to keep your major power transmission lines working when they're strung through areas that are burning like that. But whatever. Some folks are gonna say what they're gonna say and decency be damned, right?

Thanks!

You're more than welcome. I'm up in New England. We understand cold and power failures, so we understand what you're going through. We have another winter storm (probably a part of your storm) on the way tomorrow.

Stay safe and try to keep warm. [/QUOTE]

 

[trickyric]

View attachment 4169300

Florida is immune to cold fronts

 

[40Hz]

Given that I am from Buffalo, I think I can skip this thread.

True that is!

 

[mambo4]

For those wondering how this can be caused "global warming":

 

[Koshchei]

My Fit with really good snow tires is surprisingly good in winter. Is it as good as my Subaru Outback with full-time all-wheel drive and really good snow tires? Well, no, not really...the Subaru will pretty much climb up a wall.

Yeah - we have an Outback as well. Glamorous it ain't, but it'll get you there safe and sound, even if "there" is up a glacier. The little 2.5L four banger is insanely good.

It's the perfect Canadian vehicle.

 

[Koshchei]

Hah !, lightweights.
View attachment 4170544

LOL - our snowbanks are pushing 6 feet tall at this point. It's hard to see around them if you have to drive anywhere. We haven't had it like the Yukon this year though... they had a few -56C days this season. Our worst has been a week of -35C.

 

[bcbassman]

If you have a fire place and you are not using it to heat your house, block the front of it with Styrofoam packing material or insulation, cardboard packing airbags or anything that insulates. 90% of the heat generated by a standard fireplace goes up the chimney and an open chimney will also vent out the heat in your house.

 

[jmlee]

Florida is immune to cold fronts

Nope. Entire orange crops have been lost to ice in Florida: the last time in 2018 when a winter storm hit the southeast.

 

[DirtDog]

Yeah - we have an Outback as well. Glamorous it ain't, but it'll get you there safe and sound, even if "there" is up a glacier. The little 2.5L four banger is insanely good.

It's the perfect Canadian vehicle.

Heated seats, fulltime AWD and set of winter tires will get you pretty far around here in the winter - even while other 4x4s struggle.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

Where is the cutoff line for snow tires? Somewhere in Pennsylvania? In Maryland nobody talks about snow tires, maybe in Western MD. Growing up in PA snow tires were fairly common, but roads weren't as well treated as they are now. I used to do a lot of business travel in the Boston area and everyone had snow tires - except rental vehicles, which I had. And where do you store tires if you live in an apartment? (Rando musings for a morning before the coffee has kicked in.)

 

[MustangWally]

Cold feels so much better than heat and humidity.

Hell NO!!! What are you thinking man? (Spoken by a former Australian now freezing to death in Texas!)