Ice storm and trees down everywhere. I can't even get out of the neighborhood. Looks like the outside temp will remain right around freezing. I suppose I'm safe from pipes freezing, right? Debating running the gas logs. Not sure if that adds heat, or drags inside air out at a neg ratio.
Not enough info. Roughly where are you located? What is your furnace? Are your gas logs vented or chimneyed or are they ventless? What is your stove? Do you have a generator? If so, what size? All of these things, and others, affect what your options are. Don't open your fridge or freezer to minimize cold loss and food spoilage. We live out in the sticks and I bought a portable generator early on which runs our gas furnace and pumps our water. Electric heat can't be run by small generators. We finally put in a Generac stand by system because as the years passed wrestling the portable got to be less fun.
Open cabinet doors under sinks. Don't open the fridge more than you have to. If it is cold enough outside, use that for food if you have to. If frozen stuff melts, have a feast !
Another source of heat is an oven if gas. CO2 detectors are highly recommended.
Close off rooms you do not use and do not have plumbing.
Posts: 17896 | Location: SE Michigan | Registered: February 10, 2007
Gas logs, i.e. a gas fireplace, will heat the room. If you have a standing pilot WH, you're fine forever. A trickle of the hottest water running through your sewer will keep a house above 40˚.
Pipes do not freeze very easily. It would have to be below 32˚ with wind blowing across the pipes, like in a basement with a broken window.
I've left my house for weeks at a time in the dead of winter. Got home once to 8˚ and windy and it was 45˚ inside.
What does freeze are water lines in an outside (uninsulated) wall. That is never done in new construction - installing water lines in an outside wall - but we still see it in older houses, where a "water closet" was installed.
Unfortunately, we are red. But the inside of the house is in the 40s, so I guess pipes freezing is not a concern. Running the gas logs now (vented up the chimney).
Originally posted by SHOOTIN BLANKS: Lost cable and internet last evening. Power went around 7:00 this morning. May be out the weekend.
It was kind of scary in the woods over here. Lot of transformers went last night. This is a legitimate disaster. All night long I was kept awake with truly frightening tree crashes all around our house. The sky was lit like the 4th of July with flashes and the “boo” report of transformers exploding. 35,000 without power in Butler County. They’re estimating Nov 18th at 10:00pm for us.
Won't help you this time but we invested in a backup generator for our house. Natural gas generator that can also run propane if needed. Natural gas is almost free here and we have several tanks of propane just in case.
It allows us to run the entire house as if we never lost power. When power goes out the generator automatically takes over. Lights go out for about 1-2 seconds during the transition. That's long enough to reset a couple clocks but other than that it is hassle free.
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Do you have an inverter of any size? Depending on how new your fridge is an 800 watt may be big enough for you to run the unit for a bit every 3-4 hours. You could also wrap it and any freezers you have in blankets to help insulate them.
You could also run a small fan to push heat from the gas logs. If you have a full tank of gas you can idle a car for a long time. Not saying to idle it full time but an hour or 2 every few hours isn't going to hurt anything.
