AustinCountyAg said:

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posted in the other thread, but I am worried about my exposed pipes in the attic. An older house and they arent wrapped or anything.

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One idea is to go check the temp in your attic now. That should tell you something. Remember, its not about how it feels, its all about the 32F mark.

STX Ag said:

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I plan to prep by making a big fire tomorrow night...in my offset, and smoking a brisket to eat on while stuck at home. Some whiskey and cigars to warm the cockles of my heart while it cooks.

Bring it on.

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I'm doing the same!

I've got piles of dry post oak, and a big heap of split post oak being fed into my stove.

Any idea where the in house shut off for the water line might be? I can shut things off on the city side of the meter out by the street, but have literally no idea where the in house shut off might be. When we bought the house our inspector also couldn't find it. House was built around 1980 if that matters. Is it possible that there might not be one? I've checked about 20 times around the garage and the water heater since we moved in and haven't found anything. I guess I should go check in the attic above where the water heater is, but I wouldn't expect it to be there.

Will have to check the outside of the house more thoroughly tomorrow, but I don't recall seeing any unexpected valves.

House built in 2002. Only water shutoff is at the box by the street.

Question on outside spigots:

All brick house exterior. I have the Styrofoam covers over my spigots and have been installed for weeks already. Obviously, the valves are off. Live in the middle Coastal Bend area, and temps don't dive below freezing until Sunday night, and stay that way through Tuesday PM, but a low of about 9 deg F is forecast for Tuesday AM. Each spigot outdoors is adjacent to an interior bath or the kitchen sink. Plans to leave the cabinets open starting Sunday night, and let the sinks inside drip just in case, to keep water in the lines moving some, but that is just short of the outdoor spigots. No shut off to those outdoor spigots, and pipes are in the wall or under slab.

Is that enough in the OB eyes to keep the lines from freezing too far in the exterior walls? Or freezing the spigots and splitting the pipe at the transition to the brick to the inside?

Waterski02 said:

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I'll second "this thread is funny"

Unless all of your homes are built without insulation your interior plumbing in an occupied house should be just fine.

Now those of you with older non frost free spigots. That may be a different story.

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Yeah, OK, funny.

The spigots were replaced about 15 years ago after I got fed up with the backflow preventing POS ones the plumber installed due to "laws". Never heard of 'frost free spigots". It was not so much the interior plumbing I was wondering about, it was the water freeze :"plug" and where it seats. in relation to the pipe transition from exterior to interior wall. The interior sinks running were to keep water flowing as close to this transition point as possible. I am not worried about the "interior" piping freezing. The guy that built this house insulated it well, and ran the brick up all the way to the eves, even at the gables. no wood till the soffits, even if it was built in the mid 70's.

Just asking a question. I remember a couple days in the teens when I was a kid in the area, and dad just wrapped them in towels and duck tape with no issues. Was wondering if the Styrofoam covers would be oK or if i needed to dump them and wrap it all and let the water run a little instead.

Overkill but I bought some cheap nightlights with incandescent bulbs that I'm going to put on my faucets before I wrap them. If nothing else the 4$ will help me sleep better

For outdoor faucets, the Freeze Miser (automatic dripper) is quite effective and only $30 a pop.

https://www.freezemiser.com/

Seems we have a correlation here of people that heat already hot water that also don't know how to handle freezing weather.

Thanks for giving me some piece of mind. Every other house I've been in has had a very obvious shut off valve in the garage, so I've been feeling like I'm going crazy trying to find it.

I've seen heat pumps in the lab running in -45 degrees. Still was more efficient than heat strips. Your heat strips will turn on to keep the temperature comfortable.

To thaw the ice, it basically switches to AC mode. The hot refrigerant is run through the condensing coil. Your heat strips will all be on for this.

Some units go based on run time, others have sensors to initiate the defrost cycle.

It happens when you have the heat running with the temps in the 50s. You'll hear a swish from the reversing valve, and if you can see your outdoor unit, you'll see steam rising off of it.

would it be a stupid idea to hang incandescent Christmas lights in the attic to provide a little extra heat up there?

Silver lining is there should be a decent peach crop this year right?

Don't peaches need a good hard freeze?

Just turn on your attic light.

That one 60w incandescent should be plenty.

Pooh Ah said:

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Just turn in your attic light.

That one 60w incandescent should be plenty.

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Damn, that is a really good idea!

Tabasco said:

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Pooh Ah said:

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Just turn in your attic light.

That one 60w incandescent should be plenty.

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Damn, that is a really good idea!

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Ask anyone with a well house.