The worst winter in Massachusetts. Is the weather bothering you? (Boston: crawl space, transfer)

[newenglandgal123]

Originally Posted by bizcuit

I got up this morning and my pipes are frozen.

What did you have your heat set at?

[MtPleasantDream]

My kitchen has no hot water today, but the bathrooms are fine. The kitchen also has cold water.
It is weird because I suppose hot water pipes are less likely to freeze.

[MtPleasantDream]

Originally Posted by htfdcolt

No issues thankfully here NW of Boston. For me the notable things about this cold snap--that it got so cold without a snowpack. Easily would have been -15 to -20 F if we'd had snow on the ground. Plus -10 F recorded at Logan...rare to go below 0 F on the harbor!

Yeah -10F is the coldest temperature since 1957. So most people in Boston have never experienced such a temperature.

[OutdoorLover]

The worst it got last night on Mt Washington (which has a weather observatory) - was -46F with 97MPH winds, for a wind chill of -108F! These are polar expedition type conditions.

See: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...f/11185558002/

[OutdoorLover]

I am kind of compulsively curious - for those who care, apparently the Mt Washington Observatory uses kerosene-fired boiler(s) that heat water for a radiator heating system, per the back and forth on this 2019 Facebook post.

[BostonMike7]

Coldest I saw on my thermometers was -13. No idea if that was accurate.

I had one pipe freeze. Most of my water runs suspended through the basement and up interior walls or the floor, except for one pipe. Only one goes on an outside wall and up to feed the main level toilet. Maybe 2 feet of pipe run, but it was the wall that saw all the brutal wind last night. Kept the house and basement at 64* last night and it still froze. The wall is insulated, so must be a draft into that wall I’ll need to address at some point.

I had to sweat in a shutoff to isolate it in case the pipe was busted. Then I pulled off the toilet shutoff and started using a space heater to warm that wall. By 2 pm I had a trickle and got it clear and reinstalled a new shutoff on the toilet. Seems to be fine now with no damage.

I welcome the 30s back tomorrow.

[newenglandgal123]

Originally Posted by BostonMike7

Coldest I saw on my thermometers was -13. No idea if that was accurate.

I had one pipe freeze. Most of my water runs suspended through the basement and up interior walls or the floor, except for one pipe. Only one goes on an outside wall and up to feed the main level toilet. Maybe 2 feet of pipe run, but it was the wall that saw all the brutal wind last night. Kept the house and basement at 64* last night and it still froze. The wall is insulated, so must be a draft into that wall I’ll need to address at some point.

I had to sweat in a shutoff to isolate it in case the pipe was busted. Then I pulled off the toilet shutoff and started using a space heater to warm that wall. By 2 pm I had a trickle and got it clear and reinstalled a new shutoff on the toilet. Seems to be fine now with no damage.

I welcome the 30s back tomorrow.

64 is kind of low for being in the -10+ range, no? I'm surprised folks don't want to raise their heat up a little higher than usual to like 70. I know it hurts the wallet but it's better than having to deal with frozen pipes! I have a stone foundation, unheated basement and I had no issues with frozen pipes. I also kept my thermostat set at 70 the last 2 days.

[BostonMike7]

In the past it’s been more than adequate. I actually keep the basement at 60* usually, so 64 was a bit warmer than typical. In hindsight I prob should have kept the basement warmer but I think this happened due to some unique circumstances with the extremely low temps and wind direction on that wall.

I think this spring/summer, I’ll relocate where the pipe goes up from the exterior wall to either up through the floor or over to the interior wall, and that should fix the issue for good.

[CaseyB]

I have a pipe in the basement that exits the outside wall, runs outside under the deck for 2-3 feet and comes back in the house. This is the water for the kitchen faucet and dishwasher. I made sure the faucet was dripping the last 2 nights when I went to bed. Friday night it got down to -11 and the pipes were ok.

[bizcuit]

Well, my water came back on at about 9:30 this morning. Thankfully!