What to Do When the Power Fails by Mary Twitchell

Author:Mary Twitchell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC
Published: 1999-04-12T04:00:00+00:00

Water Concerns

During an outage, there are three main concerns with respect to water. You need to have enough to meet all your drinking and eating requirements. You need to prevent your pipes from freezing because they may cause a great deal of damage when they thaw. And you need additional water for sanitation purposes.

Once you have stockpiled sufficient water to meet your drinking requirements, the safety of your water pipes is your next concern. Frozen pipes can be costly and messy. If the power goes out for an extended period and the outside temperatures are below freezing, the pipes, regardless of how well they are insulated, may freeze.

Take the following steps to prevent frozen pipes.

• Set the faucets on the first floor at the rate of a fast drip. Water enters a house at above freezing temperatures; if kept moving, the water will not have a chance to freeze.

• Open the hot water faucets every three or four hours and let the hot water run for 5 minutes. You can do this only if you have a gas or solar hot-water heater. Opening the faucets periodically will warm the hot-water pipes and prevent them from freezing. The cold-water faucets, however, should be kept open and allowed to drip continuously.

• Oil or propane space heaters should be kept operating in the basement near the boiler or in the area of the pipes. Be sure to leave a window opened an inch to adequately vent the heater.

• For plumbing systems in danger of freezing, the pipes may have to be drained. When water freezes, it expands; this expansion will crack the pipes. When the water thaws, the pipes will begin leaking; and if the main supply valve has not been closed, water will gush out of the crack(s), flood your basement, cause thousands of dollars of damage, and create a terrible mess.

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