Yep! My DH was going to have us turn the water back on to test the burst pipe he capped off, but realized it would just refreeze and break again tonight. So we’re busy getting buckets of water from our pool to flush the toilets! At least we planned ahead enough to also collect some drinking/cooking water before the pipe burst.
1 Like
Or insulate them now, run heat tape.
RR
1 Like
They have the tube insulation. Heat tape would be expensive to install because there’s no access. They aren’t in an attic, they are just in the space between the roof and the ceiling. So the porch ceiling would have to be taken out and then reinstalled. Also heat tape doesn’t work when the power is out. For the amount of sub freezing weather we get here and the kind of bookings I get I think just shutting down would make more sense. BTW, the water gets so hot in that line that I’ve had guests think the hot and cold lines are reversed. I just tell them to let it run until it cools off.
2 Likes
My hot water tank is pretty much shut off from late May to early Oct. The water that feeds my house from a big black tank on my roof is warmer than I or my guests want it at that time of year.
1 Like
How often do you need to have it filled, is it expensive? Curious as I consider the world as I get closer to retirement.
RR
I don’t have it filled- I’m on the city water line. So it goes into my cistern and then pumps up to the tank on the roof, then is just gravity fed into the house.
The reason for this system is that unlike first world infrastructure, the city water doesn’t just flow with pressure 24/7. In my town, and many others, there is a schedule where they open the valves to one part of town for certain hours of the day, and then switch it over to another main. So a direct feed from the city main into the house would mean I’d only have water for a few hours a day. And they used to just send water to my area in the middle of the night.
And sometimes the pressure is really wimpy, too.
I could have a giant cistern and a pressure pump into the house, but pressure pumps are more expensive, and break down more often than the little $35 pump that has been working for me for 12 years without a problem.
So the water out of my taps, being gravity fed, doesn’t have strong pressure, but it’s adequate and I found some shower heads that work with low pressure and give a good shower.
I did have to order water a couple times over the years when the city pumps broke down. It’s about $25 for a 4000 liter truckful.
@muddy - you have the low-tech version of what we have in St Lucia - solar panels for hot water!
I remember my dad tried to install those on our house in Iowa in the 70’s. He painted a corrugated metal sheet black, installed it on the roof, and put plexiglass over it. Never seemed to work, but he was happy just tinkering around with it!
1 Like
It seems crazy to live somewhere the sun shines almost every day, andnot use solar panels, but the cost of my electricity is so low that installing solar wouldn’t pay off in my lifetime. My electric bills are a maximum of about $7/ month! My hot water heater is propane, and that costs me $25/year.
If I had AC, it would definitely be worthwhile having solar- that ups the electric bills to more like $100-$200/month, but I’m perfectly comfortable with fans.
I’m filled with curiosity: what does the snow plow look like that plowed the road in the picture labeled “Alaska Snow”? Minnesota plows could not do that. I googled “what does an Alaska snow plow look like” and got pictures that look very much like Minnesota plows. But not taller. Are they like the machines that carve tunnels out of mountains?
This is not sympathy. Before you post “oh, sorry for you, but I just can’t help laughing”, think of the thousands of elderly, stuck without power for 48 hours in homes that are not insulated for cold while the temps range from 7º - 20º. Then take their running water, or if they have running water, it’s not safe to drink. Never has the hosts’ forum left such a bad taste in my mouth than after seeing this post.
2 Likes
That pass gets plowed by a pair of big rotary snowblower plows. If you have an airport where it snows you have probably seen them plowing runways.
