Also I had a PEX line freeze up, was added as part of a Reno, nothing to worry about right?

You guys shutting off water and draining pipes have no power or what?

If you've got power and I assume you're running your heater what's the point? It shouldn't be below freezing in your house or attic so what gives?

If I had a peer and beam, I think I'd turn it off as well.

I have a detached garage with water and no heat in it. I did drain that area and this AM, it was at 34 degrees at the low.

Charismatic Megafauna said:

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Well i wrapped every pipe i could find but still no water this morning. Guess i should have dripped, unless other westburyans can confirm a city issue

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I'm in Westbury 3 and have water.

Speaking of power

aggiedata said:

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If I had a peer and beam, I think I'd turn it off as well.

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I put halogen shop lights under the house to keep the plumbing warm.

Snipes said:

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Don't understand all the crapping on draining pipes, its not that big of a deal going without water for day and half.

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Because it's Texags…that said, I woke up in the middle of the night and took a ***** Nice to be able to simply wash my hands like I don't live in a third world country. We also have family coming over today so the wife and I showered before our son woke up this morning. Again, nice to not have to go outside, turn on the water, go in the attic to turn on the water heater, wait for it to heat up, etc.

Not ****ting on anyone being safe and every house and situation are different. But for most, it just isn't necessary

What's its costing you right now for energy

aggiedata said:

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If I had a peer and beam, I think I'd turn it off as well.

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OK that makes sense

Kept pool running all night and lost about 2-3 inches of water. Must have a leak. I suspected one, but I thought it was only on the fill line. May have to pull plugs on pumps and filter if I can't keep it full. With all he wind last night it could have lost some water, but not that much.

Edit - My pool guy said it should be evaporating like crazy since the water is warmer than the air, but I'll keep an eye on it.

Fuel mix, solar coming back on.

Check your gasket on your pump lid, it might have contracted, and allowing water out. Happened to me last year

CenterPoint is reporting nearly 19k without power.

Edit..now approaching 20k


Maybe this will finally lead to some real change at CenterPoint.

I feel like my attic temps are lower this time around. I had insulation blown in though. I'm guessing it would work opposite and keep the heat in my house and out of the attic opposed to the summer heat. Shot some temps in the 20's but pipes seem to ok thus far. I also have a recirculating pump for instant hot water that might help I guess.

If PEX, you're probably ok. It expands but weird things can happen.

Dripped faucets all night. Cold water line temp never dropped below 55 degrees. Adding 8-12" on insulation in the attic made a huge difference. We want out of this house within 6-9 months so not risking a pipe burst.

Also, this old house still has original cast irons pipes, so draining and exposing them to air is almost a bigger risk these days.

That's what it's costing the wholesale market. Griddy is gone so no one here is paying that. Ercot going to have some pricing issues today, but not seeing the risk of anything like Feb.

I terms of why shut off vs drip.... a lot of us are gone for Christmas and don't need any risk of a busted pipe while not home.

Just to clarify a bit, that's what Retail Electric Providers who are short are having to pay on the wholesale market.

End users on fixed rate contracts aren't affected by wholesale price fluctuations.

Beat me to it.

FarmerJohn said:

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If PEX, you're probably ok. It expands but weird things can happen.

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It's only a year old. Just paranoid. Thanks

Irish 2.0 said:

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What change do you expect CenterPoint to implement to prevent the wind from causing damage?

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CenterPoint gets the luxury of being a monopoly in Houston, yet also a publicly traded company. I'm as free market as the next guy, but this seems a recipe for bad things. They also control all the nat gas lines and send out their annoying money grab to buy insurance for your lines.

It's a guarantee that there's gonna be 20k-100k outages with any sort of weather event.

The obvious answer is they aren't protecting the grid as they should be. For all the money they claim to be spending, it seems not to be doing enough. So they need to spend more, to maintain their monopoly or something else needs to change.

The actual correct answer, in my opinion, is they need to be forced to build a plan that buries most of the lines. I know someone will claim that "the power has to come from poles somewhere," but if they drastically reduce the above-ground power lines, the opportunities for wind/ice/cars/etc to damage the grid go way down. It's a contradiction to claim that claim climate change is going to make the weather more unpredictable, yet not do the things that will truly fortify the system.

This ended up better than the nothingburger hurricane porn threads.

I have the same beef as you.

Living in kingwood I see poles that are at 20+ degree angles with trees growing in the lines. So when the wind blows, you lose power.

With all this money spent on services, why can't they cut trees every 2-3 years? Instead, I get to wait for a repair crew to trim everything around one fault every other week (and when I first moved in in 2017, it was 8+ hours a month) until they did everything.

Start moving lines underground more.

~egon

So what is the thought of shutting the water off at the intake pipe and draining pipes/faucets before leaving town for Christmas?

Does the the two water spigots outside need to be drained too?

What if temps outside are still below 32 degrees when attempting to do so?

He said bury the lines. Lines are buried in my neighborhood and we keep power more than previous house.

Crap. Better check my level.