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Yup, will be letting the kitchen faucet drip overnight the next few nights. In temps below 20 in Winter 2016, nothing happened. But January 2017 the pipe running along the outside garage wall froze (to a tankless heater) froze because of temps below 20. Maybe because Jan 2017 temps were with a ice storm during that time as well? Also, I don’t know for sure which pipes but that is the only outside wall with pipes. We still had cold water - so that means the hot water to or from the tankless was frozen.
It takes a certain amount of water to activate the tankless heater, so letting it drip will just keep the water in the “hot” line moving. The plumbing company suggested running a quartz radiant heater in the garage facing that wall on sub-15 degree nights but I’ll try the faucet dripping first.
I had sealed my crawlspace this past summer, it is currently 49 degrees 23% humidity under the house, it is 26 degrees 37% humidity outside. No dripping required.
If you have a water heater in a storage unit on the exterior, the single digits forecast for later next week can freeze water lines.
That storage room gets cold, particularly, due to the vents for fresh air required by code for a gas water heater.
If the garden hose faucet is on the back or side of the storage area, it is easily subject to freezing.
Run water routinely.
I am doing laundry in my laundry closet/water heater closet...and running my dryer to keep that room nice and toasty.
We are keeping the heat between 60 to 68. Hopefully it keeps the crawl space warm enough. I am dripping the faucets at night but not during the day. Maybe I should be doing that with these really low temps this week. Hmm.
As far as keeping the faucets dripping during the day is concerned, my guess is that regular use for washing, etc. is enough to keep the lines clear. I've taken up the suggestion to run the dishwasher in the middle of the night -- I've set it for 3AM more or less, so between 3 and 5 there's hot water running through the lines. Plus the faucets dripping. In the morning I run around and check everything to make sure it's all copacetic.
Just two months ago the ductwork was all redone, so presumably far less heat being lost into the crawl space. I just got a remote thermometer and will put it down there and see what the temperature is down there.
Running the dishwasher at 2 or 3 am does the trick! We had been doing that but then we forgot last night. Despite a sleeve of insulation, the pipes from the crawl space up the outside wall to the tankless froze. After about 40 minutes with a space heater and blanket around that section of pipe, we were good to go. Needless to say, we won't forget to set the dishwasher for tonight!
I had forgotten about running the dishwasher in the middle of the night until I read this thread the other day. It works great. Thanks for the reminder!
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