On Jan 21, 8:28*am, wrote:
*keep your heat on , if your sink is on outer wall,keep the cabinet
doors open there.. its no wonder your freinds pipe froze with no heat
on. that would happen in any house when its that cold.lucas

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I'd be most concerned with the 5" piece of exposed pipe. From the
description, it's not clear exactly what this is, but if temps are
falling below freezing, I'd get it either drained if it's non-
essential or protected in some fashion otherwise. The house freezing
with no heat is a very different situation from a heated house. Take
a look at how water is run in your house. The most vulnerable spots
are those completely exposed, like that 5" piece of pipe, or an
outdoor faucet that isn't freeze proof. Next would be areas where
water pipes flow in outside walls, or in the slab at the very
perimeter of the house, etc. Generally even in those situations, with
any decent construction techniques, it would have to get very cold for
those pipes to freeze. From experience here in NJ, that happens when
it's in the low teens or below for an extended period. If it just
dips there for a few hours overnight, it's usually not a problem.

Personally, I've never had pipes freeze in my house here in NJ,
except once, when the heat went off while I was away. Even then I was
very lucky, because all that happened was it caused the compression
fitting by one toilet to start to leak.. Recently, it was down to 2F
here and no problems.

Forget about shutting the water off at the street. That isn't
required and wouldn't keep the pipes from freezing. All it would do is
prevent a flood. The pipes are still full of water and can freeze
and bust anyway. I had a recent reminder of this. I was
experimenting making granita, which is a frozen ice dessert. I put a
coffee cup with water, flavoring, etc into the freezer. It froze and
cracked. Now, if freezing can crack a cup with lots of open space
above it, clearly relying on open expansion space doesn't mean the ice
will all expand there and you will be ok.