how to keep pipes from freezing?

[rainbowmoon]

I haven't got my heat on yet (and it involves getting on the roof to switch over the vent from the swamp cooler to the furnace- which I will have a friend come do this coming week). it is going down to 22 degrees tonight though! will my pipes be ok? what can I do to make sure they don't freeze and burst?

[Stinkerbell]

It's not a great idea or a long term solution but we leave the hot water on and dripping (no less than one drop per second) in the 3 sinks if I am really afraid of pipes freezing (it was a real possibility in our old house).

The water department suggested that.

[rainbowmoon]

thanks! the freeze warning is from 3-9am. brrr. it's cold! I am up doing laundry and baking now trying to keep the house warmer. lol. I keep running the water every 1/2 hour or so, just in case. we do have a nice space heater, but I'm afraid to use it with 2 small kiddos. I have had 2 pipes burst living in this house thus far. (both times were hoses that sorta should have been turned off and once the tube to the swamp cooler, again water should have been turned off to it) hoping it won't happen again!

[sunanthem]

yes, leave the taps dripping on cold nights, get some pipe insulation for pipes you can get to, and also dont forget to remove outside hoses from taps; I forget why this helps, but it does.

[oneKnight]

Originally Posted by sunanthem

yes, leave the taps dripping on cold nights, get some pipe insulation for pipes you can get to, and also dont forget to remove outside hoses from taps; I forget why this helps, but it does.

Because water sits/pools in the garden hose, and since it's not protected by your house (like the pipes) it freezes up and can burst the faucet.

We take the hoses off and put on one of those styrofoam insulator things that attacheds to the faucet, mostly because our pipes are not underground so I do worry about them. My parents' old house was like this one, and that's what my dad always did.

[haitimom]

As a little girl we lived in an od farm house, if there was a freeze warning my dad would open the cabinet doors of all the sinks on outside walls. Then when we went to bed he would plug a lamp in and set it on the floor in front of the pipes. The bulb gave off enough heat to keep everything from freezing.