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Leave the water on with modest heat. You are risking problems turning it on and off without having pipes blown out & traps antifreezed.
Those old windows need insulated.
In my insulated walls hen house I have a double layer of visqueen plastic film stapled inside over the bank of chickenwire windows for winter. That keeps the wind out but lets sunshine in. Then I have a roll up curtain of tekfoil which I roll down during predicted below zero cold snaps.
I think it is probably cheaper & more efficient to buy roll-up insulated livestock curtains for your cellar basement than house drapery.
Or DIY & buy a roll of tekfoil & just staple it up inside temporarily for winter. I use a cheap T50 staple gun. Tekfoil is the construction product similar to bubblewrap that is placed under cement slabs prior to pouring to make a thermal barrier. It is white on one side & foil on the other. There are different thicknesses & widths at different price points. I order the 4 ft wide 125 ft rolls from my hardware store for about $100. You can likely get it from Amazon.
Oh no. See that's the kind of thing I was afraid of.
Or maybe this one that I just found on Home Depot https://www.homedepot.com/p/Reach-Ba...8125/203536788. Like I said, I was thinking along those lines anyway even though it's expensive (for a dope like me) but not in the long-run, like everyone says and I just paid off my Home Depot card so may as well give it a shot.
If I am reading this correctly you have a well so water is free but heating obviously is not. I wouldn't want to pay to heat a cellar either so the answer to me is simple: Insulate the pipes in the cellar and keep a faucet dripping to keep the pipes from freezing. And yes put plastic over that cold window.
If I am reading this correctly you have a well so water is free but heating obviously is not. I wouldn't want to pay to heat a cellar either so the answer to me is simple: Insulate the pipes in the cellar and keep a faucet dripping to keep the pipes from freezing. And yes put plastic over that cold window.
Yep, you're reading it correctly. A couple of the pipes around the water heater were insulated upon installation but the rest are not. And they are old. I've had many pin-prick leaks in the small copper pipes that my neighbor welded and put back together with a small part from Home Depot. Then I had another leak and I fixed it myself (they were away) with a trick I learned on YouTube with the polyethylene tape of whatever it is that you can buy cheap at Amazon and wrap around the leak. That trick really works and I have not had any further problems.
I still have a small leak near the washer in a wider, older and heavier pipe and will have to get the plumber out again anyway. The only time the pipes ever burst is when the back door blew open during a blizzard a few years ago so they were exposed to the freezing wind and temperatures and burst. Other than that I used to keep the water trickling out of the faucet like we were always told.
The problem started when the pump started to keep running even after being fixed and I developed new leaks after having the other ones repaired. So there was basically a snowball (so to speak) of fear and problems which concluded with my bright idea of shutting off the water until I could get the plumber back but then the freeze happened and won't go away and I'm stuck in the middle of it with no water unless I turn it back on.
So that brings me back to my latest fear, which is the one I wrote about, about turning the water back on in the middle of this freeze. But I've received so much support on this thread to alleviate most of my fears and give me great ideas how to never let this happen again. And I really appreciate it.
Or maybe this one that I just found on Home Depot https://www.homedepot.com/p/Reach-Ba...8125/203536788. Like I said, I was thinking along those lines anyway even though it's expensive (for a dope like me) but not in the long-run, like everyone says and I just paid off my Home Depot card so may as well give it a shot.
One thing not being mentioned, is the faucet you leave open, has to be the one at the lowest level in the basement, not higher up in the main part of the house. There can still be water in the pipes if you do not make sure the lowest possible pipe is vacant of water.
One thing not being mentioned, is the faucet you leave open, has to be the one at the lowest level in the basement, not higher up in the main part of the house. There can still be water in the pipes if you do not make sure the lowest possible pipe is vacant of water.
That's for draining. For recharging the system the one furthest from the supply is better.
. . .I will open the faucet and the pump runs all the time anyway when I DO have the water on, which is another thing that is worrisome for me, . . .
You also mentioned that the water in the well froze one year, and that the pump is inside the house. Around where I am, that would be extremely unusual. I suspect you don't have a pressure tank - which is a unit about the size of a tall water heater that holds water pressure so the pump doesn't work so hard.
I also suspect, because you said you had a lot of leaks over the past few years, that your piping is old and weak.
Since economy is high priority ATM, the other poster who mentioned plastic used a brand name: Visqueen. Check out the price for a window insulation "kit" and compare it to that insulation. Obviously, the insulation would be more effective, but maybe you need cheaper and "make do" for a little while. In part, I say this because I think you are, in the future, going to have to spend more money on plumbing.
Something to look at is Pex water piping. It is cheap, durable, and can be installed by a non-plumber. Using shark-tooth type fittings, you barely even have to be handy! I was talking at my dentist's office the other day - and two of the receptionists were talking about putting in their own piping using Pex and the shark-tooth type fittings. Pex is also preferable to copper where freezing may occur, as it can expand A LOT more than copper.
I also don't understand why your pump isn't submerged in the well, and you don't have an inside pressure tank. Assuming I'm right in guessing that you don't have a pressure tank. I think those are required by building codes where I live. For the pump to run whenever you have the water on seems like a lot of work for the pump.
You also mentioned that the water in the well froze one year, and that the pump is inside the house. Around where I am, that would be extremely unusual. I suspect you don't have a pressure tank - which is a unit about the size of a tall water heater that holds water pressure so the pump doesn't work so hard.
I also suspect, because you said you had a lot of leaks over the past few years, that your piping is old and weak.
Since economy is high priority ATM, the other poster who mentioned plastic used a brand name: Visqueen. Check out the price for a window insulation "kit" and compare it to that insulation. Obviously, the insulation would be more effective, but maybe you need cheaper and "make do" for a little while. In part, I say this because I think you are, in the future, going to have to spend more money on plumbing.
Something to look at is Pex water piping. It is cheap, durable, and can be installed by a non-plumber. Using shark-tooth type fittings, you barely even have to be handy! I was talking at my dentist's office the other day - and two of the receptionists were talking about putting in their own piping using Pex and the shark-tooth type fittings. Pex is also preferable to copper where freezing may occur, as it can expand A LOT more than copper.
I also don't understand why your pump isn't submerged in the well, and you don't have an inside pressure tank. Assuming I'm right in guessing that you don't have a pressure tank. I think those are required by building codes where I live. For the pump to run whenever you have the water on seems like a lot of work for the pump.
Good luck!
Thank you so much for the invaluable information. There's another tank next to the pump (not the water heater) and I don't know what it is. Thanks also for the info on Visqueen and especially Pex. I'll have to check that out. As far as the building codes, I'm worried about that. The house is old and the plumbing and electric wiring is, also. I've had electricians and plumbers out ad infinitum and I don't know - the last guy was out here, and most of them to a degree, want to look around, do a little work and go home, when I'd be perfectly willing and able for them to do the entire job. But this coming and going business is what's killing me. It seems to me that as soon as they get here they want to leave. They rush around, so a little half-a$$ed work and then leave. I'm sick of it, myself!
The last electrician who was here said that he gets "X" amount of dollars (a lot) just to come out so I'm thinking maybe they want to separate the work piece meal so they get the 'coming and going' fees for each trip. Something's up with them and I can't figure it out. And my neighbor even owns a plumbing business so I thought I'd be safe with him but he sent a guy out and then all of a sudden he had to go to Home Depot to get a part, which they charged me for that time as well, even though he knew what I was calling about and should have had the part in his truck. I mentioned one of the other problems I had and he said I'd just have to call the office and talk to them; he had another appointment.
Oh well. I've got the heat on down there now, and I'll have to work all these other problems out as best I can. But thanks again for all the great info. The more knowledge I have, the better equipped I am do deal with these things.
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