Growing up in Buffalo, I never even considered what is common knowledge here might not be known elsewhere. Every Fall I would help my Dad close and drain the water outlets, put away the lawn furniture, bring up the shovels, oil change the snow blower, and go and buy multiple bags of rock salt and 5 gallons of fuel plus stabilizer. It was a ritual I thought everyone just knew to do. Well, the way New Yorkers are leaving for the South that knowledge should spread in a few years. Makes me wonder what Southerners know about the heat and the house that Northerners dont know.
Texan here- sure wish I'd seen this before we had 3 degree temps! I live in a manufactured home park, and had my faucets all dripping inside, with the cabinet doors open. Woke up in the AM, no more dripping, oh no! It turns out the park owner had his maintenance crew shut off all the water to the individual homes, but didn't bother telling the residents. Now we all have frozen pipes, and it's already been over a week without any water! Got a guy to help me try to unfreeze the pipes, had heaters running under the house & in all the cabinets with taps, but no luck so far. Got water from the outside tap next to the main water valve, but none anywhere inside the house. I'm furious with the park owner, and if the pipes burst I'll be suing him!
Hi did you try putting salt down the drain I did to unfreeze any ice in it ,it worked try doing it everyday though ,any salt works I used regular salt no broke pipes though
@@admar6934 Hey, thanks for the reply! No, I didn't try salt- what happened was, none of our pipes would've frozen, if the damn park mgr hadn't decided to turn off the water to us all without warning. We'd been letting the water flow thru the pipes, so when he turned off the water it meant that the water left in the pipes stayed there- and froze!- which burst the pipes. We were lucky, only one pipe burst & it wasn't hard to fix, but some folks were really screwed. If it had only been the drain, salt would have done the job, I'm sure!
Same here some of my neighbors pipes broke sadly but this winter try it for sure ,it's predicted a winter storm but worse also I put the heater opened the cabinets from under the sink placed the heater in front that helped,well best wishes to you and your family be blessed
@@admar6934 Yes, the heater under the sink is a great idea! I'll try that this winter, thanks for the tip! All the best to you and your family as well, and may God bless you all!
Thanks so much for posting this. I feel much more secure about my pipes. To think the things we take for granted....until something goes wrong! Thanks again.
Great tips as always! I would only add to install pipe insulation close to the exterior wall to a maximum of only 18” away in a basement or exterior wall that meets a inside wall. That way you get the heat from the room, even if it’s ambient such as a basement, on a good bit of the exposed pipe and the pipe closer to the wall will be insulated from the cold. Also those outside faucet covers need to have insulation stuffed inside of them before installing them over the faucet. Lastly since you didn’t mention it if you cut off water to device and you have a ball valve after the shut off valve you cut off place the valve after the cut off point to half on half off. Enough water can get trapped between the ball and the wall of the valve causing it to freeze and crack. This is mainly for backflow devices for irrigation systems. Even turn all the test cock valves half on half off and back off the bolts of the relief valve a little bit so the water can drain out from there as well. Also installing tees with drain plugs right at the ground of the inlet and outlet pipes of the backflow device can allow you to drain all the water out of the device and piping above ground eliminating any worry of frozen piping.
Nice tricks! Also worth mentioning is a method to keep underground pipes frost free. You can feed a heating cable inside the pipe with a cable that is suited for that purpose. A small cable inside a ~40mm diameter house main water supply line won't hurt the flow too much. Of course the pipes shouldn't freeze if buried deep enough but unsually long cold peaks can reach frost to 1m deep underground. Also, it does cost more to raise your indoor temperature because heat loss through insulation rises when temperature difference rises.
Great video. Lots of good ideas. Another idea for thawing frozen pipes is to use a stick welder. The frozen pipe has to be metal. With the welder turned off attach one of the clamps to either side of the frozen section, usually a buried pipe. Open a faucet and then turn the welder on the lowest amperage setting. When the flow is restored turn off the welder and remove the clamps. Doing this too long can melt your pipe, so only use the low setting. Connecting the clamps with the power on could cause an arc that will put a hole in your pipe or blind you. When listing drains to add RV antifreeze I'm pretty sure you forgot washing machine drains. That would be a bad trap to forget. Thanks for the awesome videos. I've learned a lot from them.
Thank you so much! Yes I heard of that technique but never saw anybody using it, pretty sure it makes for a quick unthawing hehe...have a great day buddy ;)
No. 8 is a new one on me. As for those outside foam insulators, never thought they were of any real use. Thanks for giving your opinion. I'll pick up a couple. As always, I enjoy all your videos.
7:54 #10 is okay if you have just one faucet and one pipe; if you have multiples of these, the water can still freeze in any pipe that isn't being slowly "drained" by an open faucet like this. Also, slowly letting water into a drain can actually make freezing worse, in that the drain-pipe is no longer empty of water in some areas.
There is totally inaccurate information at about 7:30 about the cost of warming an house. It is false to say that the cost of heating a house is the same no matter what the temperature is, and that it's only the increase in temperature that cost money. That's not how thermodynamics works. It would be accurate if insulation was infinitely perfect, but nothing in the universe is perfect, and our insulation material are nowhere close to even good. We will never live the day where we see insultation with R-Value of infinity. Heat loss = (Delta T x Area x Time) / Insulation R-Value. The heat loss in BTU/hr is equal to the difference in temperature between the outside and the inside time the area of insulation times the time divided by the R-Value of the insulation. At a R-Value of 30, the difference between heating your house to 70 or 73 for the average American house is about 200 BTU/hr. That's 42.5 kWh at the end of the month, or 4.25$ more per month on your electricity bill at 10c per kWh (you can also convert BTU/hr to your gas energy density to get the cu. ft. of gas you'd need more and convert by the price of the gas you pay also, if you are heating with gas). For an older house at R-15, the loss for that 3F is 400BTU/hr, so 8.50$ per month. You cannot control the outside temperature, but you can definitely control the inside one! And no, it's not 4.25$ to increase the temperature, it's the price to __maintain__ that temperature. If you reduce temperature during the night, or while you are away, the economies are even greater. It is almost always cheaper to decrease your temperature for any time greater than one hour than to maintain the temperature. I'm sure you'd rather stay comfortable when you are at home and save while you are away than paying through the nose to heat a house when no one is in it. I remember an exercise one of our thermodynamics professor had us do in College. He got us to convert an average R-30 insulated house into a perfectly insulated one with a hole in the wall. I believe the answer was something along the line of a 1 foot hole in the wall. The average house has the equivalent of a 1 foot hole in the wall because insulation are pretty bad. It's kind of shocking when you think about it.
I didn't want to make it too complicated, but yes, there will be a small delta if it's heated more, I just thought that for 1 or 2 degrees it wasn't worth specifying, thanks man!!!
Anybody who is installing RV antifreeze in drain traps should really consider fully winterizing all of the house, which would include shutting off the water, draining all water pipes and radiators, draining the water heater, draining the boiler, plus other things. Banks have this done on foreclosed properties that will remain vacant and unheated during cold weather months.
good Information In the 1990s I noticed the Sears rubber Garden hose would freeze but did Not bust until 34 below zero F so I did My whole plumbing with It, I use Gimour brass valves and connectors the plastic are more likely to bust I cover the hose with flexiable sewer pipe and If the Water line does freeze I uses a hairdryer to blow warm Air down the lines, I have tried heat tape but It usually does Not work and one time It about set My house on fire, I have been after manufacturers to make something as a automatic Water flushing system to flush the Water lines every few minutes I tried a automatic lawn sprinkler It worked for 2 hours but does Not have multiple repeats, also do Not run Warer lines near cement because cement absorbs the cold like a magnet.
More heat in your house means more money to spend, it doesn't cost the same. Thanks for the video, I'm looking at solutions for my main water line in the crawlspace. I guess I'll go with insulation.
I’ve used a torch while living in Montreal, during power failures. For some reason, they used build homes with little insulation and they would install plumbing against an outside wall🙄. Awesome video as usual mon ami!
As of writing this here in Houston Tx. , neighbors water heaters and sprinkler lines bursting. My water is off at the street meter but was done too late. I don't want to turn it back on.
Is the auto shut off valve electrically powered? I would expect the pipes to freeze if the power goes off while you're away. With no power there is no heat and the pipes could freeze in a basement. So, how would this electronic device help if the power goes off? Is there a battery backup?
@Got2Learn, nice tips. However, your suggestion to check wall voids by pulling switch plate covers is missing a very important point. One should only be checking behind switches that are on exterior walls. No value in insulating interior walls as they are heated on both sides. Got to make that clear, right?
These are all good tips but I have one small disagreement. Keeping the heated areas of your home at a higher temperature might prevent pipe freezing in certain situations but it does cost more. The reason is that, in cold weather, a greater difference in temperature between the inside and outside of a building will increase the rate of heat loss to the outside.
Don’t use regular antifreeze. Boaters use the RV antifreeze for Winter storage because any unflushed residue is drinkable and auto antifreeze is deadly in home pipes. Add the “cherry juice “ as it is sometimes called. Any marine dealer will have it in the winter in colder climates. JoeB
Great video!! I learned a lot. I have a problem, I shut off the upstream water supply feeding the outdoor hose bib, opened up the outdoor hose bib faucet to drain, and left it open for 12 hours but the outdoor faucet keeps dripping nonstop, from the video is supposed to leak for 30 minutes at the most but the faucet keeps dripping. Please help!
7:55 this method increases risk of damage if the space is unoccupied, now you are betting certain damage on your drains not freezing VS taking precautions else where.
Realize that if it's a faucet that you can live without, find out where the water source pipe is and disconnect it to install source plug . To use faucet adding a new water pipe (flexible is available) may prevent extra sheet rock work that leaves the busted pipe there unused. A friend wishes to have done this. Also in garage had to cut cautiously sheet rock BEHIND WATER HEATER to find water source pipe . A blueprint should show pipes .
I've always used Type L copper. Question is please explain or better yet a whole video on the subject, how much better is Type L over type M? Is Type L worth the extra money. I recently replumbed my main line from 3/4 inch Type M to 1 inch Type L, people were telling me just use Type M. I understand the inside diameter is slightly smaller in Type L. Does that small difference make considerable resistance in half-inch Plumbing runs?
@@Got2Learn ... wall thickness is only 0.010 thicker between L and M pipe. Not enough to worry about flow rate. The difference is for the pressure rating and the rot resistance to bad water.
If you shut off water from the meter you won't have any water supply. I did that once shutting of at the meter(summer time).The water district advice me not to. If I break the valve I'll be liable.
All valid tricks. Funny to finally hear something I'll disagree with though. I'm pretty sure it will cost more to raise your thermostat. It may be well worth the extra cost, or the cost might not be much. I've forgotten most of my math skills, so I can't back it up, so we'll just have to agree to disagree on it.
Yes, it costs more to raise the temperature in the room per se, but once it get's to the desired temperature, it basically costs the same as if you had it 4-5 degrees lower, simple logic, why do you disagree?
@@Got2Learn Well, I know enough about physics and math to be dangerous, but I'll try to explain. There's Delta T which is the difference between the indoor temp and the outdoor temp. The higher you set your thermostat the larger the Delta T, when you combine that with heat loss, the amount of energy required will increase by a greater percent to maintain temps. I don't know how much more it would cost just that ... it will be more. If I'm wrong it sure wouldn't be the ... FIRST TIME. I love your channel.
I'd be curious to know how much more it would cost, do you think it's enough to NOT wanna raise the thermostats lol?! Thank you for the kind comment BTW :)
Raising it one degree won't cause a noticable differance in price. Whether its 22 degrees or 23 degrees it will maintain that degree. the house will eventually drop to 21 degrees or 22 degrees in which the furnace will come on to bring the house back to the desired temp. Heat loss is even and doesn't drop faster at a higher degree. So in conclusion a one or two degree higher will not impact your heating bill.
@@Got2Learn I tried googling it and the best I could come up with is approximately a 3% price change for every degree. BUT there's a ton of factors involved. So a guess would be about $3 to raise your thermostat 2° if you were paying $50 a month, not that much
Eric ... this might not be a pretty fix, but you could figure out where the pipes are inside the wall and install some blue board insulation directly on the outside in that area. (2 ft in each direction) Seal up any gaps so the air doesn't get behind the board. More often the pipes freeze in the floor and you can do the same from the bottom. Also add electric heat tape plus insulation to the water feed pipe that comes out of the ground. If that pipe freezes due to not being buried deep enough you can cover the ground above the pipe with bails of hay then cover that with a tarp to keep the rain / snow off. Of course you need to know the location of that pipe for this to help. A foot of hay is almost as good as a foot of dirt as long as it doesn't pack down.
Never install water pipes in attics or outside walls, install non freeze hose bibs and disconnect any hoses, if it turns cold and heat is off turn off the water at the main line and drain down the whole system until danger of freezing passes, if you have an air compressor get a hose bib adaptor and blow all the water out of the pipes with compressed air! Turn off hot water tank and get a short hose so you can pull drinking water from the bottom drain, Fill up your tub and use that
Use water stored in the tub to flush your toilet, pour some in the tank and flush away! Once it warms up put the system back in service and you will have no leaks! Note if the water meter is in a box outside on the lawn place a sheet of foam insulation on top of it and weigh it down with something heavy so it can’t freeze! If you are handy disconnect the discharge side of the water meter and this allows the water main to drain so it can’t freeze either! Get a plumber to show you how to do all this and you could save
Dripping water did shit... We did that htis past storm. Now we have three burst pipes. Pretty sure the water kept freezing on the edges of the pipe layer by layer until it was solid and burst. Bet if we just kept it off and drained it at night we'd have been better off.
Kick ass. In your house, please remove the stop and waste from your main shutoff (the black handle one). It's yucky. Québec does have Apollo Bronze ball valves, please.get one asap. Lates.
You didn’t include my favorite way to prevent frozen pipes: install a Watts hot water recirculating system, about $200 from the big box stores. Of course, since it uses electricity, power from the utility company or a backup generator is necessary.
@@lacro5686 - there are differ types of hot water recirculation systems. The Watts system works in a way that the cold pipe is also protected from freezing. The Watts system sends the lukewarm water back through the cold water pipes; it uses a thermostatic valve that is installed beneath a sink or behind a tub or shower service panel. When that valve senses that the hot water is only lukewarm, it opens up, and the electric powered pump on top of the water heater pushes that lukewarm water into the cold pipe that ran roughly in parallel with the hot water pipe. So water is kept moving through both pipes, and the cold pipe actually gets a little warmth in the process to help keep it from freezing (besides benefiting from water movement). Power failures disable the pump unless there is backup electric power, that would still cause issues for the situation happening now in TX. But if pipes are prone to freezing, a small backup supply could be enough to keep this pump going, so it should be a device given backup power for those who have a backup.
@@Got2Learn Please excuse my ignorance,I thought circulator pumps could also be installed on cold water lines.I know that circulator pumps can be installed on hot water pipes.I figured that circulator pumps could also be installed on cold water pipes.On second thought scratch that because a circulator pump on the the cold water line would probably register as water flowing through the water meter in which case the water company would have a field day doing the billing.
@@Got2Learn Is it possible to instal a soft kind of rubber pipe inside the metal pipe so it acts like an bumper for the expanded frozen water inside the pipe?
@@kresimirbradvica51 ... the simple answer is NO rubber in domestic water pipes. You could replace "hard pipe" with PEX tube because it will expand more without splitting.
Those styrofoam hose bib covers don’t work. Every one of my hose bibs froze solid the first night it dropped to 20 degrees with those on them. A bath towel wrapped tightly around the bib works better.
Everyone knows to leave water dripping to prevent freezing, if you can afford the aftermath of that bill leaving it on for days to weeks at a time nonstop. That might help from freezing but not your wallet.🤷♂️
The problem with that is what happened in Texas. Everyone did just that at the same time causing the water supply to fail. The supply was hit with triple it's normal demand. Pressure dropped, and the water supply to hospitals and other critical services were left without water.
@@lacro5686 the water providers got their power cut to their pumps, at least ours did. Damage to homes was from people with no electricity for 2-3 days. Rolling blackouts, Ha! We had no juice for 53 hrs and our wood burning stove saved our plumbing and kept us warm.
err. that antifreeze idea is supposed to be illegal though... Not supposed to be throwing antifreeze down the drain regardless so i don't think that's a good idea.
To RAISE it to 73 costs, once it's a 73, it costs pretty much the same to MAINTAIN it at that temperature, you just need to factor in the higher delta.
Uh, your comments about not costing more to keep your house warmer is not accurate, at all. It costs much more to keep it warmer because it requires more energy to keep an object a different temperature than the surrounding temperature. Just call your local Energy co. That is a big error.
I wonder if the annual cost of slightly higher heating bill during subzero temps would be more or less than the repair costs, item replacement, and time lost to a catastrophic rupture? Insurance can replace some of it. I would rather pay a little more than go through the clean up and repair.
@@Got2Learn Dude- that is wrong. It takes more heat to make a space hotter. That requires more input (gas/electric/steam etc) to increase this temp. You save money when your unit is off. That is why winter is expensive as your unit rarely turns off, dependent upon insulation and kids leaving doors open.
I agree with you, but once the room reaches a higher temperature, the only thing that costs more is the the bigger difference in delta, not the actual output.
Have you ever been yelled at in the comments for wrapping cables like you do? I lot of people I know of in the film and theater industries, they always over-under wrap cables to prevent kinks and allow for easier dispensing.
![State of Play | September 24, 2024 [ENGLISH]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/fVs0suPHAX8/mqdefault.jpg)
TEXAS WEATHER FEB. 15-18, 2021 IS BAD. NO ELECTRICITY IN MOST PLACES! THIS VIDEO IS SO HELPFUL. I MEANT TO MENTION THIS BEFORE.
🙏🙏🙏🤞🤞🤞🥶🥶🥶
Growing up in Buffalo, I never even considered what is common knowledge here might not be known elsewhere. Every Fall I would help my Dad close and drain the water outlets, put away the lawn furniture, bring up the shovels, oil change the snow blower, and go and buy multiple bags of rock salt and 5 gallons of fuel plus stabilizer. It was a ritual I thought everyone just knew to do. Well, the way New Yorkers are leaving for the South that knowledge should spread in a few years. Makes me wonder what Southerners know about the heat and the house that Northerners dont know.
Lots of tips for next year.Hopefuly not but never know.
I wish i could have watched these videos about 10 years ago when I was an apprentice.
So informative and easy to follow.
Thanks Aaron!
Definitely need this for what coming to Texas thank you🙏
🙏🙏🙏👌
Thought I was the only one looking up these videos.
Me too, in Texas.
TEXAS!
Lolol in Texas looking this up as well
Texan here- sure wish I'd seen this before we had 3 degree temps! I live in a manufactured home park, and had my faucets all dripping inside, with the cabinet doors open. Woke up in the AM, no more dripping, oh no! It turns out the park owner had his maintenance crew shut off all the water to the individual homes, but didn't bother telling the residents. Now we all have frozen pipes, and it's already been over a week without any water! Got a guy to help me try to unfreeze the pipes, had heaters running under the house & in all the cabinets with taps, but no luck so far. Got water from the outside tap next to the main water valve, but none anywhere inside the house. I'm furious with the park owner, and if the pipes burst I'll be suing him!
Hi did you try putting salt down the drain I did to unfreeze any ice in it ,it worked try doing it everyday though ,any salt works I used regular salt no broke pipes though
@@admar6934 Hey, thanks for the reply! No, I didn't try salt- what happened was, none of our pipes would've frozen, if the damn park mgr hadn't decided to turn off the water to us all without warning. We'd been letting the water flow thru the pipes, so when he turned off the water it meant that the water left in the pipes stayed there- and froze!- which burst the pipes. We were lucky, only one pipe burst & it wasn't hard to fix, but some folks were really screwed. If it had only been the drain, salt would have done the job, I'm sure!
Same here some of my neighbors pipes broke sadly but this winter try it for sure ,it's predicted a winter storm but worse also I put the heater opened the cabinets from under the sink placed the heater in front that helped,well best wishes to you and your family be blessed
@@admar6934 Yes, the heater under the sink is a great idea! I'll try that this winter, thanks for the tip! All the best to you and your family as well, and may God bless you all!
Your art and graphics are 👌🏽. Definitely a pro as a plumber and animator
Thank you so very much!!!!!
Brilliant. Though we have different kind of plumbing here, somehow can apply the mentioned procedures.
Thanks so much for posting this. I feel much more secure about my pipes. To think the things we take for granted....until something goes wrong! Thanks again.
🤘🤘🤘
S/O my fellow Texans 🇨🇱
Great tips as always! I would only add to install pipe insulation close to the exterior wall to a maximum of only 18” away in a basement or exterior wall that meets a inside wall. That way you get the heat from the room, even if it’s ambient such as a basement, on a good bit of the exposed pipe and the pipe closer to the wall will be insulated from the cold. Also those outside faucet covers need to have insulation stuffed inside of them before installing them over the faucet. Lastly since you didn’t mention it if you cut off water to device and you have a ball valve after the shut off valve you cut off place the valve after the cut off point to half on half off. Enough water can get trapped between the ball and the wall of the valve causing it to freeze and crack. This is mainly for backflow devices for irrigation systems. Even turn all the test cock valves half on half off and back off the bolts of the relief valve a little bit so the water can drain out from there as well. Also installing tees with drain plugs right at the ground of the inlet and outlet pipes of the backflow device can allow you to drain all the water out of the device and piping above ground eliminating any worry of frozen piping.
🤘🤘🤘
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Proper insulation and use of anti freeze outside faucets really helps.
💯
Vivo en México donde lo más frío es 5°C no sé porqué veo estos videos, pero son muy educativos, keep them going
Nice tricks!
Also worth mentioning is a method to keep underground pipes frost free. You can feed a heating cable inside the pipe with a cable that is suited for that purpose. A small cable inside a ~40mm diameter house main water supply line won't hurt the flow too much. Of course the pipes shouldn't freeze if buried deep enough but unsually long cold peaks can reach frost to 1m deep underground.
Also, it does cost more to raise your indoor temperature because heat loss through insulation rises when temperature difference rises.
Thanks Antti!!
YOUR AWSOME! IT IS SO BRIEF AND TO THE POINT AND PERFECT TIPS ALL IN 1 VIDEO! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
You're so welcome!!!!!
Great video. Lots of good ideas. Another idea for thawing frozen pipes is to use a stick welder. The frozen pipe has to be metal. With the welder turned off attach one of the clamps to either side of the frozen section, usually a buried pipe. Open a faucet and then turn the welder on the lowest amperage setting. When the flow is restored turn off the welder and remove the clamps. Doing this too long can melt your pipe, so only use the low setting. Connecting the clamps with the power on could cause an arc that will put a hole in your pipe or blind you.
When listing drains to add RV antifreeze I'm pretty sure you forgot washing machine drains. That would be a bad trap to forget.
Thanks for the awesome videos. I've learned a lot from them.
Thank you so much! Yes I heard of that technique but never saw anybody using it, pretty sure it makes for a quick unthawing hehe...have a great day buddy ;)
Helllllo from Friday January 20, 2023. Already 486k subscribers! Thanks again for alllll the great videos. Hope your weekend goes perfectly
499,000k 😏😏😏
@@Got2Learn hahaha YES!!!! Even better!
@@T.E.P.. 😏😏😏
I am in Dallas, Texas.
My hot water line froze in the house.
Luckily it did not burst.
I just left it open and it thawed out.
Good job.
Do I leave the outside on or the sink faucet on or both
Thanks from Corpus Christi, Tx.- “Most Majestic Oceanview”- 200 miles west of Dallas,Tx.
Awesome!!! 🤘🤘🤘
Excellent video thank you so much!
Here from Texas winter storm.
I wonder what the farm animals think!
I needed this video 2 weeks ago LOL Texas got hit with the worst snow/ice cold spell I think we've ever had in history
🥺
Thanks from good ol Texas, Houston to be exact!!!
Niceee!!
This Texas snow gotta go
It was awful. Luckily my pex pipes didnt burst.
@@eazy1174 I was in the same boat with you my man! Whewwww....
Thank you for the tips.
No. 8 is a new one on me. As for those outside foam insulators, never thought they were of any real use. Thanks for giving your opinion. I'll pick up a couple. As always, I enjoy all your videos.
Thank you J, appreciate it!!
7:54 #10 is okay if you have just one faucet and one pipe; if you have multiples of these, the water can still freeze in any pipe that isn't being slowly "drained" by an open faucet like this. Also, slowly letting water into a drain can actually make freezing worse, in that the drain-pipe is no longer empty of water in some areas.
That torch is a no go, the hair dryer is the best bet
at a moderate setting
There is totally inaccurate information at about 7:30 about the cost of warming an house. It is false to say that the cost of heating a house is the same no matter what the temperature is, and that it's only the increase in temperature that cost money. That's not how thermodynamics works. It would be accurate if insulation was infinitely perfect, but nothing in the universe is perfect, and our insulation material are nowhere close to even good. We will never live the day where we see insultation with R-Value of infinity.
Heat loss = (Delta T x Area x Time) / Insulation R-Value. The heat loss in BTU/hr is equal to the difference in temperature between the outside and the inside time the area of insulation times the time divided by the R-Value of the insulation.
At a R-Value of 30, the difference between heating your house to 70 or 73 for the average American house is about 200 BTU/hr. That's 42.5 kWh at the end of the month, or 4.25$ more per month on your electricity bill at 10c per kWh (you can also convert BTU/hr to your gas energy density to get the cu. ft. of gas you'd need more and convert by the price of the gas you pay also, if you are heating with gas). For an older house at R-15, the loss for that 3F is 400BTU/hr, so 8.50$ per month.
You cannot control the outside temperature, but you can definitely control the inside one! And no, it's not 4.25$ to increase the temperature, it's the price to __maintain__ that temperature. If you reduce temperature during the night, or while you are away, the economies are even greater. It is almost always cheaper to decrease your temperature for any time greater than one hour than to maintain the temperature. I'm sure you'd rather stay comfortable when you are at home and save while you are away than paying through the nose to heat a house when no one is in it.
I remember an exercise one of our thermodynamics professor had us do in College. He got us to convert an average R-30 insulated house into a perfectly insulated one with a hole in the wall. I believe the answer was something along the line of a 1 foot hole in the wall. The average house has the equivalent of a 1 foot hole in the wall because insulation are pretty bad. It's kind of shocking when you think about it.
I didn't want to make it too complicated, but yes, there will be a small delta if it's heated more, I just thought that for 1 or 2 degrees it wasn't worth specifying, thanks man!!!
When heating our homes, We are paying for the temperature difference from outside to inside. The greater the difference, the higher the cost.
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Anybody who is installing RV antifreeze in drain traps should really consider fully winterizing all of the house, which would include shutting off the water, draining all water pipes and radiators, draining the water heater, draining the boiler, plus other things. Banks have this done on foreclosed properties that will remain vacant and unheated during cold weather months.
Minus 14 this morning in Oklahoma 30 below wind chill.
Ouchhhhh 🥶🥶🥶
good Information In the 1990s I noticed the Sears rubber Garden hose would freeze but did Not bust until 34 below zero F so I did My whole plumbing with It, I use Gimour brass valves and connectors the plastic are more likely to bust I cover the hose with flexiable sewer pipe and If the Water line does freeze I uses a hairdryer to blow warm Air down the lines, I have tried heat tape but It usually does Not work and one time It about set My house on fire, I have been after manufacturers to make something as a automatic Water flushing system to flush the Water lines every few minutes I tried a automatic lawn sprinkler It worked for 2 hours but does Not have multiple repeats, also do Not run Warer lines near cement because cement absorbs the cold like a magnet.
Nice. Love your animation.
Thank you very much, tried to make it as clear as possible lol ;)
More heat in your house means more money to spend, it doesn't cost the same.
Thanks for the video, I'm looking at solutions for my main water line in the crawlspace. I guess I'll go with insulation.
Yes of course, i've also seen those heated wirs being used on drains as well to protect the ptrap, so you can also go with that! :)
Thank you so much Great advice
You are so welcome!
Well done
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I’ve used a torch while living in Montreal, during power failures. For some reason, they used build homes with little insulation and they would install plumbing against an outside wall🙄. Awesome video as usual mon ami!
Thank Viper6, yeah the torch works, just gotta be careful not to burn anything ;)
I wished some one told me before my pipes froze and busted about the rv antifreeze for everything. I going to buy that and do that this time. Thanks.
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As of writing this here in Houston Tx. , neighbors water heaters and sprinkler lines bursting. My water is off at the street meter but was done too late. I don't want to turn it back on.
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Nice tips.👍
Thanks for nice video 👍
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Lol texas needs all the help it can get all the time so someone on here from there trying to figure something out
Is the auto shut off valve electrically powered? I would expect the pipes to freeze if the power goes off while you're away. With no power there is no heat and the pipes could freeze in a basement. So, how would this electronic device help if the power goes off? Is there a battery backup?
Yes, there's a 9V battery in it to operate it.
@Got2Learn, nice tips. However, your suggestion to check wall voids by pulling switch plate covers is missing a very important point. One should only be checking behind switches that are on exterior walls. No value in insulating interior walls as they are heated on both sides. Got to make that clear, right?
Correct!!!
Great little tips
Thx hoots c!
Great content. Much appreciated with this incoming Arctic blast!
These are all good tips but I have one small disagreement. Keeping the heated areas of your home at a higher temperature might prevent pipe freezing in certain situations but it does cost more. The reason is that, in cold weather, a greater difference in temperature between the inside and outside of a building will increase the rate of heat loss to the outside.
Yes, but to a point where it's considerably higher, I don't think so, but I am not 100% certain.
I agree with Don Ho. The rate of heat loss will increase.
One or so degrees will not make a differance in heat loss
Don’t use regular antifreeze. Boaters use the RV antifreeze for Winter storage because any unflushed residue is drinkable and auto antifreeze is deadly in home pipes. Add the “cherry juice “ as it is sometimes called. Any marine dealer will have it in the winter in colder climates.
JoeB
Thanks!!
Woohoo first comment! As usual, excellent work G2L 👌
🤙🤙🤙see you later!!!
Great video!! I learned a lot. I have a problem, I shut off the upstream water supply feeding the outdoor hose bib, opened up the outdoor hose bib faucet to drain, and left it open for 12 hours but the outdoor faucet keeps dripping nonstop, from the video is supposed to leak for 30 minutes at the most but the faucet keeps dripping. Please help!
Might need to change that shut off valve before the bib, what condition is it in? What type of valve is it?
Knowledge is power
Truly! 👌
Thanks !!!!
Very useful!
Thanks!!!
Can you make a video on blowing out sprinklers?
Maybe in the future!! Thank you so much for watching!!
7:55 this method increases risk of damage if the space is unoccupied, now you are betting certain damage on your drains not freezing VS taking precautions else where.
Running pipes through the attic is another practice to avoid, just like running pipes within an exterior wall.
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Thanks.
Welcome!
use silicone tape to wrap the pipe, its perm fix for burst pipe!
Do you have any advice for when your pipes are frozen but also stuck behind a wall where you can't directly heat them up?
Maybe remove baseboard, make a hole and use a hair dryer in the hole...
Realize that if it's a faucet that you can live without, find out where the water source pipe is and disconnect it to install source plug . To use faucet adding a new water pipe (flexible is available) may prevent extra sheet rock work that leaves the busted pipe there unused. A friend wishes to have done this. Also in garage had to cut cautiously sheet rock BEHIND WATER HEATER to find water source pipe . A blueprint should show pipes .
I've always used Type L copper. Question is please explain or better yet a whole video on the subject, how much better is Type L over type M? Is Type L worth the extra money. I recently replumbed my main line from 3/4 inch Type M to 1 inch Type L, people were telling me just use Type M. I understand the inside diameter is slightly smaller in Type L. Does that small difference make considerable resistance in half-inch Plumbing runs?
In terms of longevity, type L will last longer, specially if you have rough water, type M is more for heating applications.
@@Got2Learn ... wall thickness is only 0.010 thicker between L and M pipe. Not enough to worry about flow rate. The difference is for the pressure rating and the rot resistance to bad water.
5:59 This is the only real solution.
;)
I live in Texas it’s gets 29d so I guess it’s not bad when you have to apply this method when temperature drops below zero?? Anybody can reply please
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this was a month ago.I really hope you insulatted the pipes.
Heating frozen pipe will cause a pipe to burst,, always warm surroundings area warm up room temperature do not apply direct heat to pipe will bust
Good Upload
Thank you!!!
I need this viah
What if I shut the water off from the city meter and leave faucets dripping? Safer than just dripping faucets?
No because the water can freeze even underground in really cold temps, it must run not to freeze 👌
If you shut off water from the meter you won't have any water supply. I did that once shutting of at the meter(summer time).The water district advice me not to. If I break the valve I'll be liable.
All valid tricks. Funny to finally hear something I'll disagree with though. I'm pretty sure it will cost more to raise your thermostat. It may be well worth the extra cost, or the cost might not be much. I've forgotten most of my math skills, so I can't back it up, so we'll just have to agree to disagree on it.
Yes, it costs more to raise the temperature in the room per se, but once it get's to the desired temperature, it basically costs the same as if you had it 4-5 degrees lower, simple logic, why do you disagree?
@@Got2Learn Well, I know enough about physics and math to be dangerous, but I'll try to explain. There's Delta T which is the difference between the indoor temp and the outdoor temp. The higher you set your thermostat the larger the Delta T, when you combine that with heat loss, the amount of energy required will increase by a greater percent to maintain temps. I don't know how much more it would cost just that ... it will be more. If I'm wrong it sure wouldn't be the ... FIRST TIME. I love your channel.
I'd be curious to know how much more it would cost, do you think it's enough to NOT wanna raise the thermostats lol?! Thank you for the kind comment BTW :)
Raising it one degree won't cause a noticable differance in price. Whether its 22 degrees or 23 degrees it will maintain that degree. the house will eventually drop to 21 degrees or 22 degrees in which the furnace will come on to bring the house back to the desired temp. Heat loss is even and doesn't drop faster at a higher degree. So in conclusion a one or two degree higher will not impact your heating bill.
@@Got2Learn I tried googling it and the best I could come up with is approximately a 3% price change for every degree. BUT there's a ton of factors involved. So a guess would be about $3 to raise your thermostat 2° if you were paying $50 a month, not that much
You forgot the number 1 way. Replace with pex.
I think that would be easier than running electric heating wires around them.
I've had pex freeze in the past.
@@am2brok ... yes, pex will freeze but generally wont split. OTOH, the metal fittings can split.... but it takes a LOT of cold to get to that point.
What if you live in an older trailer. They are never insulated very well and very drafty. The pipes always freeze. Any tips now?
They would maybe need to be brought inside instead.
Move.
@@44455brian LOL
Eric ... this might not be a pretty fix, but you could figure out where the pipes are inside the wall and install some blue board insulation directly on the outside in that area. (2 ft in each direction) Seal up any gaps so the air doesn't get behind the board. More often the pipes freeze in the floor and you can do the same from the bottom. Also add electric heat tape plus insulation to the water feed pipe that comes out of the ground. If that pipe freezes due to not being buried deep enough you can cover the ground above the pipe with bails of hay then cover that with a tarp to keep the rain / snow off. Of course you need to know the location of that pipe for this to help. A foot of hay is almost as good as a foot of dirt as long as it doesn't pack down.
Never install water pipes in attics or outside walls, install non freeze hose bibs and disconnect any hoses, if it turns cold and heat is off turn off the water at the main line and drain down the whole system until danger of freezing passes, if you have an air compressor get a hose bib adaptor and blow all the water out of the pipes with compressed air! Turn off hot water tank and get a short hose so you can pull drinking water from the bottom drain, Fill up your tub and use that
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Use water stored in the tub to flush your toilet, pour some in the tank and flush away! Once it warms up put the system back in service and you will have no leaks! Note if the water meter is in a box outside on the lawn place a sheet of foam insulation on top of it and weigh it down with something heavy so it can’t freeze! If you are handy disconnect the discharge side of the water meter and this allows the water main to drain so it can’t freeze either! Get a plumber to show you how to do all this and you could save
Dripping water did shit... We did that htis past storm. Now we have three burst pipes. Pretty sure the water kept freezing on the edges of the pipe layer by layer until it was solid and burst. Bet if we just kept it off and drained it at night we'd have been better off.
A friend of mines used a blow dryer to keep the pipes from freezing because the contractor forgot to cover the pipes in insulation.
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Kick ass. In your house, please remove the stop and waste from your main shutoff (the black handle one). It's yucky. Québec does have Apollo Bronze ball valves, please.get one asap. Lates.
I live in an area where we go to -50C, thiis didn't really cover anything I didn't know haha.
It's not really a good idea to leave any electric heaters working without being supervised unless they are isolated from any combustible materials.
Heat tape should be considered a last option or "stop-gap" measure. Passive measures are more reliable.
Ok! Thanks for watching harry!
So my water isn’t running at all any advice for me?
Open up some faucets and try to heat the pipes up where they are frozen using the methods in the video.
@@Got2Learn worked perfects, thank you good sir.
Awrsomeee!!!
You didn’t include my favorite way to prevent frozen pipes: install a Watts hot water recirculating system, about $200 from the big box stores. Of course, since it uses electricity, power from the utility company or a backup generator is necessary.
Yes, great tip, thanks!!
Doesn't that only prevent the hot water lines from freezing?
@@lacro5686 - there are differ types of hot water recirculation systems. The Watts system works in a way that the cold pipe is also protected from freezing.
The Watts system sends the lukewarm water back through the cold water pipes; it uses a thermostatic valve that is installed beneath a sink or behind a tub or shower service panel. When that valve senses that the hot water is only lukewarm, it opens up, and the electric powered pump on top of the water heater pushes that lukewarm water into the cold pipe that ran roughly in parallel with the hot water pipe. So water is kept moving through both pipes, and the cold pipe actually gets a little warmth in the process to help keep it from freezing (besides benefiting from water movement).
Power failures disable the pump unless there is backup electric power, that would still cause issues for the situation happening now in TX. But if pipes are prone to freezing, a small backup supply could be enough to keep this pump going, so it should be a device given backup power for those who have a backup.
I am in Texas
Bet this is too late for me
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No... just be prepared in case of a future need. 😗
My kitchen faucets often freezes. Unfortunately, I can't get to the pipes behind the wall so the running water trick works well.
Awesome, yeah just about anyone could use that trick ;)
Officials in Houston are telling residents to NOT drip their faucets. Crazy stuff!
Why?
@@nofurtherwest3474 because water pressure is almost nothing. Better to shut main line off and wait for temps to warm up this weekend.
@@xuimod yeah while they sleep comfy in their homes...
@@xuimod ohhh
This is your meal ticket.
I wonder if the Copper that we have these days is real Copper ...
Isn't it better to install a circulator pump?
For hot lines thatworks, but there's no circ on cold line
@@Got2Learn Please excuse my ignorance,I thought circulator pumps could also be installed on cold water lines.I know that circulator pumps can be installed on hot water pipes.I figured that circulator pumps could also be installed on cold water pipes.On second thought scratch that because a circulator pump on the the cold water line would probably register as water flowing through the water meter in which case the water company would have a field day doing the billing.
@@Got2Learn answers.angieslist.com/Redy-Temp-hot-water-recirculation-system-pipes-freezing-Is-effective-q125460.aspx
@@Got2Learn Is it possible to instal a soft kind of rubber pipe inside the metal pipe so it acts like an bumper for the expanded frozen water inside the pipe?
@@kresimirbradvica51 ... the simple answer is NO rubber in domestic water pipes. You could replace "hard pipe" with PEX tube because it will expand more without splitting.
Hey you you mann
;)
Those styrofoam hose bib covers don’t work. Every one of my hose bibs froze solid the first night it dropped to 20 degrees with those on them. A bath towel wrapped tightly around the bib works better.
They have their limits hehe..
I have siding that keeps the foam cover from sealing. I just stick old socks in the open spaces and it works like a charm.
@@nancywebb6549 socks it is!
Whose here after your pipes froze
I'd ' rather see who's here after the pipes began to boil! 😋
Everyone knows to leave water dripping to prevent freezing, if you can afford the aftermath of that bill leaving it on for days to weeks at a time nonstop. That might help from freezing but not your wallet.🤷♂️
The problem with that is what happened in Texas. Everyone did just that at the same time causing the water supply to fail. The supply was hit with triple it's normal demand. Pressure dropped, and the water supply to hospitals and other critical services were left without water.
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@@lacro5686 the water providers got their power cut to their pumps, at least ours did. Damage to homes was from people with no electricity for 2-3 days. Rolling blackouts, Ha! We had no juice for 53 hrs and our wood burning stove saved our plumbing and kept us warm.
How could keeping a house 3 degrees warmer cost the same price? Completely illogical.
You're paying mainly to get it up 3 degrees, once it's at the new temperature, the difference you'll be paying is negligible.
6:39 tip to tipster: Do not touch fiberglass insulator without proper gloves. 😎👍
err. that antifreeze idea is supposed to be illegal though...
Not supposed to be throwing antifreeze down the drain regardless so i don't think that's a good idea.
It's not illegal, it's purposely made to do just that
@@Got2Learn erm, i read online you can't dump antifreeze down the drains. it still says antifreeze regardless of what it is.
@Semper Fi Never knew there was a purpose use for antifreeze meant to be used in home like that.
You can’t dump car antifreeze down the drain, ethylene glycol. RV antifreeze is propylene glycol and can be put in water systems in a home.
@@pinkiepie1656 oh okay, i didn't know lol
1. Use PEX.
2. There are no more tricks
Yes Chuck !
PEX can not be used in some states any suggestions
@@Chickpeass y
7:08 Sure it will, unless Harry and Marv pay you a visit! :P
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I'd rather have Harry and Marv show up than Tommy Devito and Jimmy Conway!
NEVER EVER apply direct heat to a frozen pipe ......... IT WILL BURST !!!!!!
I know just how it feels.
Keep it at a distance Gary.
All due respect, but the average homeowner would not understand your theory and pipes will explode from that instant temperature differential
coper is so expensive
It sure is!
Set your thermostat at 73 or 70, costs the same, thats news to me.
To RAISE it to 73 costs, once it's a 73, it costs pretty much the same to MAINTAIN it at that temperature, you just need to factor in the higher delta.
@@Got2Learn Nonsense! Maintain the temperature at 73 costs more than maintaining it at 70 or at any lower temperature. Isn't this common sense?
Uh, your comments about not costing more to keep your house warmer is not accurate, at all. It costs much more to keep it warmer because it requires more energy to keep an object a different temperature than the surrounding temperature. Just call your local Energy co. That is a big error.
Yes, but for 2-3 degrees, I thought I wouldn't mention it, but you are correct Shannon.
I wonder if the annual cost of slightly higher heating bill during subzero temps would be more or less than the repair costs, item replacement, and time lost to a catastrophic rupture? Insurance can replace some of it. I would rather pay a little more than go through the clean up and repair.
Maintaining the temperature at 73 costs the same as 70? That is not accurate in the least bit.
The only cost is bringing it up to that temperature and maintaining the slightly higher delta, won't show really.
@@Got2Learn Dude- that is wrong. It takes more heat to make a space hotter. That requires more input (gas/electric/steam etc) to increase this temp. You save money when your unit is off. That is why winter is expensive as your unit rarely turns off, dependent upon insulation and kids leaving doors open.
I agree with you, but once the room reaches a higher temperature, the only thing that costs more is the the bigger difference in delta, not the actual output.
Have you ever been yelled at in the comments for wrapping cables like you do? I lot of people I know of in the film and theater industries, they always over-under wrap cables to prevent kinks and allow for easier dispensing.