The worst winter in Massachusetts. Is the weather bothering you? (Boston: insurance, houses)

[CaseyB]

Originally Posted by bizcuit

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

Did it come back without you having to call a plumber?

[bizcuit]

Originally Posted by CaseyB

Did it come back without you having to call a plumber?

Yes! Just suddenly all of the taps were gushing water. It was so strange, I thought maybe there would a trickle first or something.

[BostonMike7]

My incoming water temps right now are at 39 degrees. That’s pretty damn cold and I can see why it wouldn’t take much for one pipe to freeze up.

I might make some changes now to try and mitigate issues in the future. I think I can say that was the coldest I’ve ever personally experienced.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by 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.

It’s counterintuitive but I’ve read a scientific paper from a bunch of grad students that explained why an ice cube tray with hot water freezes faster than an ice cube tray with cold water. I can’t explain it myself. Magic, I guess.

My summer house has an unconditioned crawl space. I’m vulnerable to frozen pipes at around 0F. Insulating the foundation walls is on my ToDo list but 0F is pretty unusual here.

[htfdcolt]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

It’s counterintuitive but I’ve read a scientific paper from a bunch of grad students that explained why an ice cube tray with hot water freezes faster than an ice cube tray with cold water. I can’t explain it myself. Magic, I guess.

My summer house has an unconditioned crawl space. I’m vulnerable to frozen pipes at around 0F. Insulating the foundation walls is on my ToDo list but 0F is pretty unusual here.

I haven't seen this paper, but in general, heat transfer is proportional to the temperature difference (object vs. surroundings). The higher the difference, the faster the cooling rate. But yeah, seems counterintuitive.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by htfdcolt

I haven't seen this paper, but in general, heat transfer is proportional to the temperature difference (object vs. surroundings). The higher the difference, the faster the cooling rate. But yeah, seems counterintuitive.

I am a chemist, I've had solid state chemistry, and it's counterintuitive to me, too. What you are saying is right... At least thinking at a bulk level, water at 180F has to go through the state of water at 45F before getting to e.g. 30F, so it seems wrong. *If* this really happens, it has to do with the physical reorganization of all the individual water molecules being improved for the hot water case - that's what the solidity of ice actually corresponds to, is the physical reorganization of the constituent molecules into a more optimally ordered 3D ensemble/lattice of interactions - hydrogen bonds and dipole interactions - then it gets hard, like a crystal. Maybe the molecules from the cold water get trapped into a suboptimal organization - a local minimum - a viscous fluid, while the hot water molecules - which do start out with higher kinetic energy, are able to access that nore globally optimal configuration more readily.

[justyouraveragetenant]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

It’s counterintuitive but I’ve read a scientific paper from a bunch of grad students that explained why an ice cube tray with hot water freezes faster than an ice cube tray with cold water. I can’t explain it myself. Magic, I guess.

My summer house has an unconditioned crawl space. I’m vulnerable to frozen pipes at around 0F. Insulating the foundation walls is on my ToDo list but 0F is pretty unusual here.

Reminds me of a funny Gordon Ramsay clip ....
https://youtu.be/_bX5zwnQxA4. Ha ha. I know the ice probably will freeze faster though when hot.

[matrix5k]

Okay now this is the worst winter ever. We had a pipe burst for the first time, what a nightmare. It was -10 for a day then in the 40s the next day, wtf.

[MtPleasantDream]

It seems pipe bursts were quite common. Boston medical center (and two other hospitals), Wang Theater, Newton Jewish center, Billerica library etc all had such problems.
Although -10F is rare, I thought Boston public buildings should be able to handle it.

[porterhouse]

we had a bathroom pipe that normally froze with below zero temps due to poos design of it being too close to a dormer wall. we had it insulated when doing some roofing work last summer. this was a good stress test. it didn't freeze!