Re: Balancing heat loss and keeping pipes from freezing
- From: RP <no_mail_no_spam@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 09 Mar 2006 22:01:24 -0600
george.pagliarulo@xxxxxx wrote:
I have a home in the Northeast that I'm not at that much in the winter
but am there enough that I don't want to just shut it down. This is
the first winter I've gone through with the house so I'm still feeling
my way around. To save on heat, when I'm not there I turn the
thermostat down to 47 degrees. We've recently gone through the coldest
days of the winter and everything was fine so I'm not worried about
that setting being too low to keep the pipes from freezing. But, I
want to try to reduce the heating bill further. It has a FHA heating
system, half the cellar is finished and heated with the furnace and
water heater on the unfinished, unheated side of he basement. Neither
the water heater nor any of the water pipes are wrapped and there is no
insulation around the FHA ducts. I figure I'm losing a lot of heat into
the basement. I was planning on wrapping the ducts, and the water
heater but then became concerned that if I did that, then perhaps the
reduced heat in the basement could cause the pipes to freeze.
My question is, how do you go about finding that balance between
setting the thermostadt as low as possible while also reducing heat
loss from the ducts etc., and still keep things from freezing.
There is no way to calculate that value. At any indoor temp it's possible to have pipes in outside walls freeze. The outdoor temperature is as much a factor as the indoor temperature. You may not be so lucky next winter if outdoor temps run 10º lower, or if they stay at this years low for longer periods. If you push your luck by setting back to 47º, then one of these days you'll find out from experience what your balance point is, and when you do it's likely that all of your savings will be shot to hell. Indoor flooding can cost thousands.
Richard Perry
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: Balancing heat loss and keeping pipes from freezing
- From: Edwin Pawlowski
- Re: Balancing heat loss and keeping pipes from freezing
- References:
- Balancing heat loss and keeping pipes from freezing
- From: george . pagliarulo
- Balancing heat loss and keeping pipes from freezing
- Prev by Date: Re: How difficult is it to run new AC duct?
- Next by Date: Re: Iron stains in Toilet
- Previous by thread: Re: Balancing heat loss and keeping pipes from freezing
- Next by thread: Re: Balancing heat loss and keeping pipes from freezing
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
Loading
