You Know Hold Cold It Is Here? Well...

[neely]

New Year's Day we woke up to -7 without the windchill, -20 to -30 w/windchill, and an ice cold house with no heat. We tried calling several heating services including the one we've been using for years. Aside from the cost being prohibitive to come out on a holiday they couldn't get parts for our furnace since it is an off brand and the warehouse was closed. Long story short, I called around to find a pet friendly hotel and we took Carleton with us. We were more worried about him than ourselves, i.e. typical worry wart cat mom. We left all the faucets trickle, opened the cabinet doors underneath and prayed.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Oh no neely !! I hope you are able to get it fixed quickly!

The house next door to us is being remodeled. They've left the entrance to the crawl space completely open for months now. I hope they aren't heating the house and the water is turned off or they are going to have more to do!

 

[Willowy]

I literally cannot conceive of the cold you guys are talking about. Really. I have no frame of reference.

My parents grew up in the Panama Canal Zone. They never went to the US to visit during the winter. . .why would anybody leave the tropics to go to South Dakota in the winter? That would have been dumb. My mom once asked her dad what winter was like, what snow was like. He told her: "stick your head in the freezer---that's winter. Scrape some of the stuff off the side of the freezer---that's snow." She didn't believe him at the time, lol. Now she believes him!

The water is back in my bathroom. There must be a small part of the pipe that runs near the wall and it just got cold enough for that pipe to freeze. And now that it's above zero the pipe got enough house heat to thaw. No sign of leaks so far, hope the PEX did its job.

 

[vyger]

New Year's Day we woke up to -7 without the windchill, -20 to -30 w/windchill, and an ice cold house with no heat. We tried calling several heating services including the one we've been using for years. Aside from the cost being prohibitive to come out on a holiday they couldn't get parts for our furnace since it is an off brand and the warehouse was closed. Long story short, I called around to find a pet friendly hotel and we took Carleton with us. We were more worried about him than ourselves, i.e. typical worry wart cat mom. We left all the faucets trickle, opened the cabinet doors underneath and prayed.

There are all kinds of bad things that can happen when a house freezes up with out being winterized. Hopefully it won't get that bad for you. But some of the things that happens is toilets freeze and the ice breaks them, both the lower part and the upper tank. Also things like bottles and cans in a pantry freeze and split open. It is always best to turn the water off where it comes into the house and then drain all the lines and empty all the toilet tanks then put antifreeze in the bowels to keep them from breaking. Here they often put a drain valve at the lowest point of the pipes so they can be drained easily. If it was me and I knew the house was going to freeze up I would turn off the water and then cut the pipe to drain everything because it is much cheaper to fix a cut pipe instead of broken pipes in the walls. One of the reasons I have a wood stove is that it works even when there is no power. Our power grid has gotten a lot better now but many years ago we often had power failures when we got bad storms. Having an alternative heat source is always a good idea.
If you can't get the furnace running right away you can go to a big store like Menards and buy a propane heater like the ones used to heat a garage. They cost around a hundred and you need to get a propane tank also. They are not meant to be used to heat a living space but they will keep a house from freezing up. You can't sleep there with them running because they can deplete the oxygen. You have to make sure they are not pointed at anything flammable, set them in the middle of a room. Like I said the idea is to keep the house from freezing, for that they will work for a short time. Electric heaters can work also but they don't put out as much heat as a propane one and tend to start fires.
On a positive note, insurance often covers the cost of repairing damage from freezing up.

 

[Willowy]

buy a propane heater like the ones used to heat a garage. They cost around a hundred and you need to get a propane tank also. They are not meant to be used to heat a living space but they will keep a house from freezing up. You can't sleep there with them running because they can deplete the oxygen.

I have a Mr Heater Big Buddy for emergencies, and it says it's safe for enclosed spaces, and even has an "automatic low oxygen shutoff system". I'm not sure I'd trust it anyway. From some extra reading it looks like you do have to be careful to make sure everything is well ventilated, but it supposedly consumes the fuel so efficiently that not much carbon monoxide is released.

 

[vyger]

I have a Mr Heater Big Buddy for emergencies, and it says it's safe for enclosed spaces, and even has an "automatic low oxygen shutoff system". I'm not sure I'd trust it anyway. From some extra reading it looks like you do have to be careful to make sure everything is well ventilated, but it supposedly consumes the fuel so efficiently that not much carbon monoxide is released.

Yes, I also have a Mr Heater, not that model but similar. I am currently using it to heat the shop I have been working on. (Until it dropped below 0) They can put out a lot of heat very quickly. I just bought an extra long hose for it so I can park the propane tank at a distance. They are safe in terms of CO. Personally I don't care for the smell so much but you do get super high efficiency out of them and for emergency you can't beat them.