On 12/16/2004 8:28 AM US(ET), Steve took fingers to keys, and typed the
following:

Deceased Step dads house. We live in New England. The house is empty now and
I stopped by last night and the furnace was not working. I relit the pilot
light and got it working again but we are concerned that it may go out again
and we cannot get to the house every day to check. Temps were down to 18
degrees last night. I'm thinking of shutting the water off and leaving the
faucets open to avoid any pipes freezing and bursting. Would there be any
downside to shutting the main water off?
Heat is forced hot air.

Thanks

Steve


It may be a little late to think about shutting off the water, but it
will limit the damage from any pipes that may have frozen and have
breaks. If the pipes have frozen anywhere and split the pipe or a
connection, the water will not run out as long as the pipes remain
frozen by the break. You won't know until the furnace warms up the house
to above freezing and the frozen pipes thaw out. Then the water will
spray out of the break. If any pipes had burst and are still frozen,
closing the water at this point will limit the amount of water that
flows from the break when it thaws out, however.
Many years ago (in the 1960s), we had 28 straight days of below freezing
temperature here in NY. Many residents had gone off to Florida and the
south, and left their furnaces set to low temperatures. One or two days
of below freezing temperatures may not freeze the pipes that are closest
to the outside walls, but 28 days has a better chance if the furnace
setting was too low to prevent the most vulnerable pipes from freezing.
When we got a few days of temperatures above freezing, the frozen pipes
thawed, and the water began to run from all the breaks. The fire
department was quite busy for a few days, pumping out basements of
numerous houses that they knew about, or those whose neighbors reported
water running down driveways and such. Other residents came home to
indoor swimming pools.