It's another hard freeze night as lows will be in the teens northshore and low 20s south. Most of the plants in my yard have been hammered and I'll have to do some serious cutting back. My citrus trees so far appear to be OK. The good news is computer models are finally changing the east coast trough and repositioning it back over the west coast by late this week. That will result in much milder air (60s) by Thursday and Friday. A piece of energy moves across the southern states late Friday into Saturday bringing us a significant rain threat. Too soon to go into much detail regarding timing and severity. It could mean tailgating for the Saint's game Saturday might be wet?
Here's a question for you. On nights like this where the lows will be 20-25, to be safe you need to run a "pencil thin" stream of water in a faucet farthest from where your water line enters your home. Does it matter or help to run hot water vs. cold? My Master Plumber has the answer but I'd like your ideas plus reasons. thanks.
11 comments:
i would say not really to the hot water because you water heater can only hold so much hot water until it runs cold. i have been running a pencil thin stream of cold water in all of my faucets since friday. i am being overly cautious.
Cold water would be better. Hot water would waste energy and won't be any more efficient than cold water.
Running hot water is a waste of electricity/or gas. Cold water flowing thru the pipes will keep them from freezing. There's no need to run hot water.
It is a waste of gas or electricity to run hot water when the cold water will do the job. Running cold water through the faucets will keep them from freezing.
You don't need to run hot water when cold water will do the job just fine. Running hot water will waste money on your gas or electric usage to heat it up.
Very cold start to the day, had to help scrape the frost of the windshield this morning with a credit card. Temperatures across the area this morning area range from the teens to the low 20's.
Just like everything else in the world, nothing lasts and this arctic air mass will begin to modify today. Maybe if we are lucky we will reach 50F for the first time since last Thursday, but I think we may have to wait another day. Temperatures across the area should dip below freezing for at least 1 more night before the thawing really begins.
We should definitely crack 50F on Tuesday as the Arctic High slides to our east taking the abnormally cold with it, however, a clipper system will slide through Tuesday evening reinforcing the cool air-mass which will keep us in the 50's on Wednesday. We could get as high as 60F on Thursday as return flow establishes itself.
The beautiful winter sunshine will come to an abrupt end on Thursday Night as we begin to feel the effects of a developing Surface Low in the western Gulf of Mexico. The models want to quickly Occlude this low pressure system as it passes just off of the Louisiana coastline. This would allow a large rain shield to develop around the Low and this rain shield looks to effect the area from Friday through Sunday. The could be heavy at times and flooding could become an issue. Severe weather does not look to be issue at this time as the air mass looks to be too stable. However, keep in mind this is still at least 4 days away so there is still lots of time to iron out the details.
-ONLYREAL
I've always used the cold water method, as someone mentioned above, using the hot water would waste energy, cost money, plus I'd be nervous about the hot water refilling on schedule. No, the cold water method has always worked for me, and unless a real expert says otherwise, I'll stick with that.
Run the hot water. If you run the cold water, only the water in the cold pipes moves. Not in the hot water pipes. However, if you run the hot water, it forces the cold water into the water heater(moving the water in the cold pipes) and then moves the hot water through the hot water pipes. Therefore all pipes have water moving through them.
But if u run the hot water, that goes from your water heater to your faucet or bath tub, so we are warming up the pipes inside the house.
Don't we have to worry about the outside pipes that come into the house?
Got to tell you what my mother used to do.She ran both(Don't know if this was an option)only AFTER hot water heaters were put on pilot. No energy waste. She never had a problem
We ran cold water and did not have a problem. I would think that your main goal is to keep the water running, so it won't freeze by remaining stagnant in the pipes. Just like I keep my pool motor running to circulate the water.
Running warm water at such a thin line might warm the pipes to keep it from freezing, but how warm is it really going to get anyway. Especially if you are like me, where the hot water heater is in the attic.
Plus if you used hot water all night, you might wake up in the morning and not have any hot water to take a shower...
Like Onlyreal I had ice to deal with on the windshield. First I took a credit card and scrapped, then I just went inside and got a pitcher of hot water and threw it on the windshield. I did it twice and got inside the car to turn the windshield wipers on to wipe away the excess to keep it from refreezing...it did refreeze on the outside of the blade but once you got going it was fine.
Lets face it there was no good team to play first in the playoff, let just take on the Cardinals and make it to the next round...Go Saints.
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