Charles Pisano wrote:
The home is near the poconos. It is a new construction with a solid
pour basement. The only thing I'm worried about is a rise (of 10 feet or
so) where the supply comes from the street into the house, turns from
plastic in the street to 3/4 inch copper in the house and goes up to the
basement ceiling. I've insulated this section to the MAX ( but no heat
tape). But the builders guy said I may have insulated it 'from' any
heat source.

There is no relief valve on this 10 foot rise to drain it. And I don'
have a compressor up here yet. The rest of it I can gravity drain. No
problem shutting the water at the street. I tried leaving the heat off
for a couple of cooler days recently. It went down to only 60 in the
house at night on a night when it was 40 outside (and it was 60 that
day). Being new constr. and well built, it keeps the heat in effectivly.
So, I'm thinking it wont take much heat to keep it at say 55. And I
could shut off the water and drain as a precaution. ...

If the supply line is buried deep enough so it doesn't freeze outside,
if turn supply off (I presume the supply valve is before this vertical
section) and leave taps open and drain what you can there should be
plenty of expansion room even if it does freeze partially. Of course,
since it's copper, it shouldn't be at all hard to sweat a drain
location in there to remove the standing column.