Keeping Your Home Winter Safe

In my experience of living in the south, you can have some really cold weather, below freezing.  I have had some experience with freezing pipes in three different homes I have lived in.  In a condo or large complex, there would usually have to be commercial technicians to thaw pipes.  The biggest danger is the pipes bursting and this is expensive, and of course there is the risk of water damage.

Here are some tips.  If you live in a beach house, older home or mobile home, possibly you may not have good insolation.  A carpenter can add insolation under the sinks and also under your home in the crawl space.  You can do this yourself if you know how and are handy.

There are many opinions, but even though leaving the water dripping is not foolproof, it does help.  Both the hot and cold should drip, so that water is flowing through the pipes and not too cold to avoid freezing.

If however, the pipes still freeze, turn the heat up.  You can run a space heater facing the pipes as long as it is not in a place it could fall in water and electrocute someone.  If you run too many space heaters too high, the breaker switch may go off.  Make sure the protector outlet switch stays on.  I suggest either warming the frozen pipe with a hair dryer or a heating pad can be rapped around a pipe.  Do not turn the heat down at night.  Keep it the same as during the day.

When my son was in high school, he would get up during the night and turn the heat up to about 75%, as well as turning on the emergency heat.  Never turn on the emergency heat.  The only time this should be used is when the regular heat stops working altogether.  The auxiliary heat will switch on automatically.  There is also no point putting the heat higher than 72, because unless your home is very well insulated, it will not be able to get that warm in very cold weather.

Check the heat pump for a clogged drain pipe, and always make sure it is not covered with ice or snow.  If it gets iced up, you will have to use the emergency heat, because it will not be able to heat the air from outside.  And of course as the same in hot weather, keep the filters clean.  This is important to avoid any type of mold and allergens in the air as well as anything air born, which can cause disease.

If you have storm windows, this is a good thing.  Plastic can help as well, especially if you have a porch, but drapes are helpful too.  I hope you enjoyed this winter maintenance blog.  You can also follow me on twitter, Google and Youtube.