Yeah, you can always take off clothes and you don't have to worry about boiling water in your pipes. Freezing water pipes is within the range of human existence.
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Advice For Those Not Used To Cold Temperatures!
- Thread starter mrjim123
- Start date
Yeah, you can always take off clothes and you don't have to worry about boiling water in your pipes. Freezing water pipes is within the range of human existence.
A Winter story that might help some folks feel better.
In Minnesota the third week of December 2006, about 2:00am I hear the drives clicking on the home computer, and I sit up and look at the lights glowing and changes brightness, and just some generally weird things. I het dressed and by know my now ex-wife is awake and yelling. I quickly run outside to see if the power company is doing some work and the garage lights glowing way funny and they are not even turned on.
I ran inside and shut off the breakers and called the power company. My youngest son’s room and electronics are fine, he had his servers connected to a fair-sized UPS with a battery rack.
We had lost the neutral (?) to the house. He ran a temporary cable, and all was well, we thought. The furnace had died in the event. Everything that was plugged in (except the youngest sons’ room) was fried. Every TV, clothes washer dryer, refrigerator, freezer, blower motor on the fireplace, etc. Even the Glade plug in was fried and had a little flame coming out of it.
Insurance covered it and the adjuster was there the next day. He tried to pass of a check for a fraction of the value needed. The poor guy did not know who he was about to tangle with. My ex had been an expert witness for the State in some insurance cases, had run a large insurance agency, worked as a consultant organizing an insurance company and multiple large and small agencies. He said without receipts it was the best he could do. She looked at him, opened the file cabinet and asked which he would like first the TV’s or appliances. She pulls out files with receipts, owner manuals, and spread sheets listing everything. Plopped them on the bar and continued with documentation on everything. The guy says, ok, just get whatever you can justify, and we will cover it. I can be back with a check whenever you want, in the meantime I will issue the check for the new furnace and hot water heater.
A quick trip to Sears for six TV’s, a clothes washer and dryer, a dishwasher, stove, refrigerator, freezer, and stuff I am probably forgetting. No amplifiers were plugged in. She even counted light bulbs.
The furnace salesman had quickly provided some milk house heaters and the house was of reasonable temperature. It did take a day or two to get the furnace and a couple of guys to put it in.
In Minnesota the third week of December 2006, about 2:00am I hear the drives clicking on the home computer, and I sit up and look at the lights glowing and changes brightness, and just some generally weird things. I het dressed and by know my now ex-wife is awake and yelling. I quickly run outside to see if the power company is doing some work and the garage lights glowing way funny and they are not even turned on.
I ran inside and shut off the breakers and called the power company. My youngest son’s room and electronics are fine, he had his servers connected to a fair-sized UPS with a battery rack.
We had lost the neutral (?) to the house. He ran a temporary cable, and all was well, we thought. The furnace had died in the event. Everything that was plugged in (except the youngest sons’ room) was fried. Every TV, clothes washer dryer, refrigerator, freezer, blower motor on the fireplace, etc. Even the Glade plug in was fried and had a little flame coming out of it.
Insurance covered it and the adjuster was there the next day. He tried to pass of a check for a fraction of the value needed. The poor guy did not know who he was about to tangle with. My ex had been an expert witness for the State in some insurance cases, had run a large insurance agency, worked as a consultant organizing an insurance company and multiple large and small agencies. He said without receipts it was the best he could do. She looked at him, opened the file cabinet and asked which he would like first the TV’s or appliances. She pulls out files with receipts, owner manuals, and spread sheets listing everything. Plopped them on the bar and continued with documentation on everything. The guy says, ok, just get whatever you can justify, and we will cover it. I can be back with a check whenever you want, in the meantime I will issue the check for the new furnace and hot water heater.
A quick trip to Sears for six TV’s, a clothes washer and dryer, a dishwasher, stove, refrigerator, freezer, and stuff I am probably forgetting. No amplifiers were plugged in. She even counted light bulbs.
The furnace salesman had quickly provided some milk house heaters and the house was of reasonable temperature. It did take a day or two to get the furnace and a couple of guys to put it in.
We have much more snow than that on the ground here. And it's still snowing.
Agree totally. I have intentionally spent most of my adult life in the tropics but love bought me to Houston several years back and this is way the heck beyond the pale for me. At least we have electricity and gas, thus heat, but now the water is out because the power to the pumping station is out - what a balls up! Texas is totally unprepared for anything like this. The state electricity 'authority' were supposed to inspect all power stations for preparedness before the cold snap but they did not do so because COVID - what a weakass excuse. Heads need to roll here.
Even in sub zero temps I usually see at least one guy with shorts,sandals and no coat in walmart!
It's been a known issue for decades, but you know, it's the windmills.
Yea, something like 80% of the windmills in the state (and we have a lot of them) froze solid and the solar panels all got snow on them. But the real issue seems to be that the gas power plants were not at all prepared (insulation and the like) and they shut down when the temps dropped to the point where I guess that the gas crystallized in the lines or something. Something similar happened to the coal power stations too where they shut down at some low temp. The forecast for this weather has been known for several weeks in advance but these dumbasses did zip to prepare. Like the saying goes - "they had one job"!
If you got no electricity as i am reading in the news, these wont help, but if you do it might be a wise and fairly cheap investment. Just run them along the bottom of your cold water pipes. Also when me and the wife use to flip houses, sometimes the plumber would add anti-freeze into the toilets and sinks.
120v Electric heat cable
120v Electric heat cable
Thanks man, these look like a good way to go. We move into our new house in a month. The water enters the house along the garage wall, might be worth popping a chunk of drywall out right there and installing this. As you say: a cheap investment for the next freeze. (With any luck here in Texas that will be another 10 years away!)
The only trick is keeping the hooning under control. It's such a hoot to drive when there's a lot of loose packed snow on the roads! It's hard not to turn every corner into an excuse to drift.
I know I'm very late to this gig. All the advice I see is spot on. I live north of the Twin Cities in MN and can honestly tell you if it didn't get cold and snow here...people would be highly PO'd. We embrace winter weather. However don't much care for anything under -20 actual temp. January 30th, 2019 it dropped to -39 actual temp. If you don't have polar gear to wear you will die of hypothermia in minutes. Less than a 1 minute walk to my mailbox led to 20 minutes of uncontrollable shivering when I got back in the house. As a nurse, I was a bit worried.
Yeah, I'd have to weigh in as strongly disagreeing with this one. YMMV
Same - you can dress for the cold. You can't undress enough for heat and humidity.
)
LOL! You can, but I guarantee no one else wants to see that!
Edit: oh, and you will still be hot and sweaty!
Agree totally on the first comment! but I actually like being hot & sweaty, that was normal where I used to live.
You sure about that? I know a guy who's been using a Coleman LP powered camp stove in his off grid cabin for years. He’ll go up there for weeks at a time but he always comes back.
I know CO is deadly, but he’s never had any problem. Maybe because he uses wood for heat up there when it’s cold and only uses the stove for cooking.
As long as you're not stupid about it, it's fine. It's no different than cooking with your gas/propane stove. Crack a window and cook near it, if you're too concerned. And don't expect it to work for ambient heat - that's where things get dangerous because of the duration of operation. But cooking a meal isn't going to put you in danger unless you're in a tiny hermetically sealed space.
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