serious cold front coming

[niget2002]

For us here in North Texas at least. The predicted low for Monday is 0F with a high of 14F. I don't think I've ever seen temperatures that low in my life.

And I'm not sure what to do about my shop.

I have a red iron shop that is insulated. It has water spigots on two corners.

I do have a heater on the shop, but I really don't like the idea of turning it on even set to 40F for 2 days. We have heat pumps here and those get expensive.

It got down to 23F outside last night and the shop only dropped to 35F.

I do have the spigots covered.

Do I need to worry about anything? Let me know what you think I should do.

 

[The Cobbler]

can you shut them off independently from the rest of your house? shut the line down, open the spigots , cover them with heavy blankets

 

[240sxguy]

2 days? Fire up the heat. I'm sure there's other things you don't want to freeze as well. It's difficult to achieve 40 without decent insulation so the blanket idea is good as well. Best of luck.

 

[subroc]

?????

You have a heater but don't want to use it?

So, what is the question again?

 

[930dreamer]

Amarillo -9 with 3-5" of snow Sunday.

 

[protegeV]

?????

You have a heater but don't want to use it?

So, what is the question again?

Yeah, he kind of lost me at "I have heat but I dont want to use it."

 

[RPH]

Let the water spigots drip a few drops a minute. Keep enough flow to prevent freezing.

 

[Shiftless]

can you shut them off independently from the rest of your house? shut the line down, open the spigots , cover them with heavy blankets

2 days? Fire up the heat. I'm sure there's other things you don't want to freeze as well. It's difficult to achieve 40 without decent insulation so the blanket idea is good as well. Best of luck.

Independent shut off is the best idea.
Turning up the heat would also save any latex paint you have stored in the garage. Once latex paint freezes and defrosts it kind of curdles up.

Another thing some guys do is to let the water run out in a dribble round the clock. The ground temperature where the pipes are is warmer than the air so the pipes won’t usually freeze unless it gets SUPER cold. Keep the water moving.

 

[niget2002]

?????

You have a heater but don't want to use it?

So, what is the question again?

Yeah. I know. The more I think about it I'll just turn it on starting Sunday night.

I mean... The cost to heat the shop will be expensive, but I'm sure the cost to fix everything would be worse.

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[Kaizen]

The way they build in south I doubt the heater will stop freeze pipes. Recommend leaving all faucets to drip. If you can isolate do that and drip house ones.
For gods sake stay off the roads. Y’all know we stay home in ice storms right? Even 4x4 is useless on ice


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[Kaizen]

Let the water spigots drip a few drops a minute. Keep enough flow to prevent freezing.

Ha posted same time. Exactly


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[The Cobbler]

Y... The cost to heat the shop will be expensive, but I'm sure the cost to fix everything would be worse.
.....

I did a job 20 plus yrs ago, homeowner went to Florida for a few months. turned off the heat in the house. turned off the water.
came home after trip, turned on water and you guessed it, water leaks in a bunch of places ( copper had frozen) . 2 toilets cracked. total repair bill was no doubt several thousand dollars . heating the home to a low temp would have been a few hundred tops

 

[niget2002]

To be honest. My concern with leaving it running is that it is a heat pump. Those things lose efficiency the colder it gets.

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[Shiftless]

Don’t those things have resistance heater strips for back up?

 

[subroc]

If you really need to spend some money on the problem to be proactive maybe some heat tape will be just the thing for the pipes. Common up here. Especially common under mobile homes and in crawl spaces. Might be worth a look.

 

[Farmall450]

Run your heater?

We're not keeping a tent 85 degrees with electric baseboards running off a gas generator...sheesh

 

[mcj115]

To be honest. My concern with leaving it running is that it is a heat pump. Those things lose efficiency the colder it gets.

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How old is the heat pump? You are correct that the do loose efficiency at lower temps but modern pumps are still efficient. This is one of those choices is how much doest it cost to run the heat va how much does a repair from a broken line cost?

 

[ambenz]

....incandescent light bulbs under a insulated covering of some sort would help...just don't burn the place down. Those "type" of bulbs can put a fair amount of heat for the wattage used...cheaper then the element in a heat pump. Those spigots should be drained every February.

 

[Ton ton]

Lol
.

 

[Dagny]

It's been below zero highs here all week 31 below this morning.

 

[SILVERPLATE]

My biggest concern has been the well head. We have some in my area freeze up in real cold weather. There is insulation around the pump head in the small brick box around it. My well driller recommends several moving pads wrapped over and around it. Will be doing that tomorrow. Water drip and cabinet doors open near exterior walls.

 

[niget2002]

....incandescent light bulbs under a insulated covering of some sort would help...just don't burn the place down. Those "type" of bulbs can put a fair amount of heat for the wattage used...cheaper then the element in a heat pump. Those spigots should be drained every February.

Ya know. That reminds me I have a rack with a server running in the corner. Probably why the shop stays a few degrees warmer than outside.

Thanks for the level set guys and reminding me I'm an idiot. I'll turn the heater on.

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[Shiftless]

It's been below zero highs here all week 31 below this morning.

I bet you have your outdoor spigots figured out. You had to!

My Amana deep freeze chest freezer is a few degrees higher than your daytime temp.

 

[Varty Yo]

Today up here in canadaland my city temp was -38c -52 with windchill

 

[Honda guy]

If you really need to spend some money on the problem to be proactive maybe some heat tape will be just the thing for the pipes. Common up here. Especially common under mobile homes and in crawl spaces. Might be worth a look.

Heat tape for the pipes. Cheap. Takes minutes to install. Pipes will NOT freeze.

If you're not familiar with heat tape, it's a heating element that looks similar to an extension cord. Wrap it around the pipes and plug it in. Also wrap some insulation around it. Comes in various lengths.

 

[KidneyViper]

It's been below zero highs here all week 31 below this morning.

I think there were a couple days last year where it got this cold, but it's been like this for over a week now and it's getting old!

 

[Stillgottimefor1]

We were there at Fort Worth ten days ago and the weather was nice. Wouldn’t go now!


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[Dumber than lumber]

Yeah, he kind of lost me at "I have heat but I dont want to use it."

He wants to save it for when it gets REALLY COLD?

 

[dcg9381]

My biggest concern has been the well head. We have some in my area freeze up in real cold weather. There is insulation around the pump head in the small brick box around it.

I've put "pump houses" over all our wells when I had wells. Added 120V power and simply heat the pump house a bit. Another good alternative is that you can buy a heating element that's designed for heating pipes or hoses, you just wrap that around and power it up - they have built in thermostats.

Yea, this weather is like nothing Texas has seen in 30 years.. I had to get on the roof today to clear ice from the water collection screens. Heated the pump house and the water feeds I wrapped with a heating line.

The shop (I'm working in it since Covid) - heat pumps do OK until about 40 degrees, then I can't hold temp in the shop... It's 30 outside and probably 60 degrees inside.. We'll see how we do when it hits 7 degrees.. My guess is not very well.

 

[iSpark]

And here I am sitting comfortable in my skinny jeans, space heater warming my oxford brown open back slippers, while sipping my caramel latte. The temp outside is a cold 54°.
brrrr...

 

[Don1357]

How much pipe is sticking out of the slab? You could install pipe heaters. The slab itself should take a while to chill that much as it would change temperature with the soil, a lot slower than the air.

 

[matt_i]

I had my sump pump output pipe freeze up & block for the first time in 10 years. And it has spiked colder than this, I've seen (-20F) overnights twice in that period.

It does have to do with less snowfall in the area that it discharges. In the past its seemingly discharges underneath an insulative blanket of snow.

Its only need is to discharge the backwash from the permanganate iron removal system so I just put that in bypass for a couple of days until it warms back up.

 

[Is this thing on]

Might want to check your older vehicles anti freeze/coolant.
Cracked block/head is not fun.

 

[bigdav160]

How much pipe is sticking out of the slab? You could install pipe heaters. The slab itself should take a while to chill that much as it would change temperature with the soil, a lot slower than the air.

Stores are sold out of them around here.

 

[harperlola27]

What will happen if the weather stays cold for more than 2 days?

 

[nadogail]

Incandescent light bulbs are also useful as heaters.

Do you remember the Easy Bake Oven? It used a 100 Watt bulb to bake small cakes and cookies.

 

[niget2002]

What will happen if the weather stays cold for more than 2 days?

Most of Texas will evacuate to Mexico.

The worst weather I recall in my entire life was in the teens for a few days. 99% of Texas is not prepared for single digit weather.

I'm pretty sure when I get to walmart this morning there won't be much left for me to stock up on.

 

[Los_Control]

Lot of these southern homes were not designed for these temps ... the stores do not normally stock the needed supplies like heat tape or pipe insulation ... sure they may have a couple, but not prepared for a run on those items.

I left the bathroom sink run last night, think today will open the 2 outside hose bibs to drip.
I hope to have all new pex supply lines installed in the next few months. I have the floor access opened up, the wall is open .... just lacking motivation. Maybe frozen pipes will help

Pex has a really good reputation to handle some freezing. The plastic will expand with the ice, then return to normal when thawed.
While metal or pvc will just crack.

Stay warm

 

[Metal-Marc]

 

[nh_yota]

Wrap the pipes with heat tape and open up the spigots a little bit if you're really concerned.