When it's forecast to drop to -3 F and your power suddenly goes out...
When it's forecast to drop to -3 F and your power suddenly goes out...
And here I am using those 3 minutes and 30 seconds to make this meme. I have no regreš„¶
Update: Life support restored.
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That really sucks.
Make sure to run some of your taps a little so the pipes don't freeze as the interior of your house cools
If you have a garage migrate items from your fridge to the garage or yard or a balcony. They'll keep there (we always used the garage as a fridge in the winter).
Make sure to secure some water in containers in the middle of your home, and do whatever you can to keep warm.
Taping plastic wrap around your windows will keep the house warm longer, it's surprisingly effective.
Yeah, if I think the house is going to deep-freeze, I usually just shut off the service valve, drain the water out of the pipes (open a faucet upstairs and one downstairs), and wrap a blanket around the valve to try to keep it from freezing. If it gets to that point, I'm usually looking to abandon ship if possible to somewhere more hospitable.
migrate items from your fridge to the garage or yard or a balcony.
During one outage at my old house (where power outages were very common), I was bored and piled up a bunch of snow on the patio and made a snow fridge with shelves and everything. lol. Worked great.
I do keep jugs of water on hand in the basement for emergencies, but yeah, good call to move them somewhere with less heat loss in events like this.
Thankfully, everything came back up after just about an hour, so warm and toasty now.
I've seen cases of drained pipes still bursting because the little water left in them is enough. I have no idea how but it happened. Not sure what to advise. Guess the drip thing if it's bad enough.
True. That's just what the water company here recommends if your dwelling is going to be unoccupied in the winter. That, and draining the hot water tank (though in this case, I'd just be relying on the gas not going out).
Is it supposed to genuinely get below freezing in your place for an extended period of time?
If not, it's always good to fill up a bath tub full of water in emergencies like being able to flush toilets, take a whore bath, or whatever. There's also a product called a Water Bob which is food-gradr plastic bag that you put in your tub and fill up from the faucet so you have potable water.