We haven't heard from you in a couple of days. I hope the weather hasn't impacted you too severely.

Let us know.

On 2/18/2021 8:14 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
We haven't heard from you in a couple of days. I hope the weather hasn't impacted you too severely.

Let us know.

Leon may be w/o power or internet service or both. Much of
Houston's power has been restored. Just saw that there "only" about 45k
still w/o power vs. the high of 1.2 mil.
My NW-Harris-County power has now been on uninterrupted since 9:30
a.m. yesterday after 55 consecutive hours w/o. Night before last it was
52 degs in the house with but a puny gas log fireplace and some of the
gas stovetop burners for heat. I've had a Little Buddy propane heater
running on low in my well pumphouse continuously since Sunday.
Life seems almost back to "pandemic normal."

Dave in SoTex

On 2/18/2021 8:14 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
We haven't heard from you in a couple of days. I hope the weather hasn't impacted you too severely.

Let us know.



Still here!!!

On Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 11:20:01 AM UTC-5, Dave in SoTex wrote:
On 2/18/2021 8:14 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
We haven't heard from you in a couple of days. I hope the weather hasn't impacted you too severely.

Let us know.
Leon may be w/o power or internet service or both. Much of
Houston's power has been restored. Just saw that there "only" about 45k
still w/o power vs. the high of 1.2 mil.
My NW-Harris-County power has now been on uninterrupted since 9:30
a.m. yesterday after 55 consecutive hours w/o. Night before last it was
52 degs in the house with but a puny gas log fireplace and some of the
gas stovetop burners for heat. I've had a Little Buddy propane heater
running on low in my well pumphouse continuously since Sunday.
Life seems almost back to "pandemic normal."

Dave in SoTex

"Just saw that there "only" about 45k still w/o power vs. the high of 1.2 mil. "

How many have homes that have been ruined by burst pipes? That's mainly what
you saw on the news but I don't recall seeing numbers on how many are in that
situation. Getting the power back on is great, but if the flooding damaged any of
the mechanicals or power equipment, they could still be in trouble heat wise.

Of course, it begs the question as to why they didn't let the water run before the
pipes burst. Ignorance, I guess.

We had a few ice storms in my area, the worst being back in the mid-80's. Five
days without power. Luckily, the temps hovered around 40, so it was cold, but not
dangerously so. Gas still worked so the stove provided some heat.

Worst part was that I had just upgraded my furnace before that winter. The old
furnace had a manual valve that allowed the furnace to operate without power
as long as you adhered to a strict duty cycle. Code doesn't allow that these days.

I added a transfer switch and inlet a couple of years ago so I can use my generator
as long as I can get gas.

On 2/18/2021 11:57 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 11:20:01 AM UTC-5, Dave in SoTex wrote:
On 2/18/2021 8:14 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
We haven't heard from you in a couple of days. I hope the weather hasn't impacted you too severely.

Let us know.
Leon may be w/o power or internet service or both. Much of
Houston's power has been restored. Just saw that there "only" about 45k
still w/o power vs. the high of 1.2 mil.
My NW-Harris-County power has now been on uninterrupted since 9:30
a.m. yesterday after 55 consecutive hours w/o. Night before last it was
52 degs in the house with but a puny gas log fireplace and some of the
gas stovetop burners for heat. I've had a Little Buddy propane heater
running on low in my well pumphouse continuously since Sunday.
Life seems almost back to "pandemic normal."

Dave in SoTex

"Just saw that there "only" about 45k still w/o power vs. the high of 1.2 mil. "

Yes but it is daylight and warmer now. We will see at 9 pm tonight if
there are only 45k with out power.




How many have homes that have been ruined by burst pipes? That's mainly what
you saw on the news but I don't recall seeing numbers on how many are in that
situation. Getting the power back on is great, but if the flooding damaged any of
the mechanicals or power equipment, they could still be in trouble heat wise.

A lot of people have broken pipes. My son has a broken pipe.
Fortunately he shut the main valve going to his outside water softener
and drained the pipes in his house before the freeze. That main pipe
froze and broke outside the house and above ground. Hopefully that will
be the only problem. The next problem will be getting parts for this
easy repair.

WE left our water trickling at 3 sinks and have had no issues so far.
But we have a couple of nights with a hard freeze forecast, fortunately
only in the 20's, I hope. ;~)


Of course, it begs the question as to why they didn't let the water run before the
pipes burst. Ignorance, I guess.

;~) So the wise authorities say, "turn off the water coming into your
home and drain your pipes". This will prevent low water pressure...and
your pipes from freezing inside your home.


Sooooo if you do this you actually have NO water pressure. What is the
point of preserving pressure if every one turns their water off?




We had a few ice storms in my area, the worst being back in the mid-80's. Five
days without power. Luckily, the temps hovered around 40, so it was cold, but not
dangerously so. Gas still worked so the stove provided some heat.

In 1989 we got down to 7 one morning. That was cold. Did not loose power.
In 2008 we lost power for 11 days during Hurricane Ike. That was in the
summer and miserable. Fortunately a cool front moved in immediately
after the hurricane hit so we eased into misery vs. immediately.
Last night before our electricity was restored our inside temp was 57.
No gas range or fireplace.




Worst part was that I had just upgraded my furnace before that winter. The old
furnace had a manual valve that allowed the furnace to operate without power
as long as you adhered to a strict duty cycle. Code doesn't allow that these days.

;~) We had a gas range until July of last year.


I added a transfer switch and inlet a couple of years ago so I can use my generator
as long as I can get gas.


I have a generator but did not really need it, it is not large enough
for much more than a few lights, freezer and fridge. Our freezer still
showed Zero degrees after 23 hours of no power.

We did get to listen, for 23 hours, to the whole house generator run 4
houses down.

Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:
On 2/18/2021 11:57 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 11:20:01 AM UTC-5, Dave in SoTex wrote:

;~) So the wise authorities say, "turn off the water coming into your
home and drain your pipes". This will prevent low water pressure...and
your pipes from freezing inside your home.


Sooooo if you do this you actually have NO water pressure. What is the
point of preserving pressure if every one turns their water off?

So that the fire hydrants still work. They're talking about [reventing
low system pressure (due to thousands of broken pipes), not your house pressure.

On Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 1:39:10 PM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
On 2/18/2021 11:57 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 11:20:01 AM UTC-5, Dave in SoTex wrote:
On 2/18/2021 8:14 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
We haven't heard from you in a couple of days. I hope the weather hasn't impacted you too severely.

Let us know.
Leon may be w/o power or internet service or both. Much of
Houston's power has been restored. Just saw that there "only" about 45k
still w/o power vs. the high of 1.2 mil.
My NW-Harris-County power has now been on uninterrupted since 9:30
a.m. yesterday after 55 consecutive hours w/o. Night before last it was
52 degs in the house with but a puny gas log fireplace and some of the
gas stovetop burners for heat. I've had a Little Buddy propane heater
running on low in my well pumphouse continuously since Sunday.
Life seems almost back to "pandemic normal."

Dave in SoTex

"Just saw that there "only" about 45k still w/o power vs. the high of 1.2 mil. "
Yes but it is daylight and warmer now. We will see at 9 pm tonight if
there are only 45k with out power.

How many have homes that have been ruined by burst pipes? That's mainly what
you saw on the news but I don't recall seeing numbers on how many are in that
situation. Getting the power back on is great, but if the flooding damaged any of
the mechanicals or power equipment, they could still be in trouble heat wise.
A lot of people have broken pipes. My son has a broken pipe.
Fortunately he shut the main valve going to his outside water softener
and drained the pipes in his house before the freeze. That main pipe
froze and broke outside the house and above ground. Hopefully that will
be the only problem. The next problem will be getting parts for this
easy repair.

WE left our water trickling at 3 sinks and have had no issues so far.
But we have a couple of nights with a hard freeze forecast, fortunately
only in the 20's, I hope. ;~)

Of course, it begs the question as to why they didn't let the water run before the
pipes burst. Ignorance, I guess.
;~) So the wise authorities say, "turn off the water coming into your
home and drain your pipes". This will prevent low water pressure...and
your pipes from freezing inside your home.


Sooooo if you do this you actually have NO water pressure. What is the
point of preserving pressure if every one turns their water off?

We had a few ice storms in my area, the worst being back in the mid-80's. Five
days without power. Luckily, the temps hovered around 40, so it was cold, but not
dangerously so. Gas still worked so the stove provided some heat.
In 1989 we got down to 7 one morning. That was cold. Did not loose power.
In 2008 we lost power for 11 days during Hurricane Ike. That was in the
summer and miserable. Fortunately a cool front moved in immediately
after the hurricane hit so we eased into misery vs. immediately.
Last night before our electricity was restored our inside temp was 57.
No gas range or fireplace.

Worst part was that I had just upgraded my furnace before that winter. The old
furnace had a manual valve that allowed the furnace to operate without power
as long as you adhered to a strict duty cycle. Code doesn't allow that these days.
;~) We had a gas range until July of last year.

I added a transfer switch and inlet a couple of years ago so I can use my generator
as long as I can get gas.

I have a generator but did not really need it, it is not large enough
for much more than a few lights, freezer and fridge. Our freezer still
showed Zero degrees after 23 hours of no power.

We did get to listen, for 23 hours, to the whole house generator run 4
houses down.

I got a really good deal on a Coleman 6250/5000 watt generator. Barely used.
A guy bought it for his camp, where he keeps an RV. He said he was getting
too many comments that it was kind of loud, so he bought one of those Honda
inverters which are much quieter. Sold me the generator for $275.

I added a manual interlock to the panel and rearranged some circuits to split
them relatively evenly between the 2 bus bars. I marked my breaker map with
a red G next to the circuits that I want to use with the generator. I made a 240V
cord that's long enough to reach from under my deck where the generator lives
to the inlet. The location keeps the noise down, neighbor wise. I don't even have
to move it. I just plug it into the house and start her up.

We haven't had a major outage since I set it up (of course) but I test it once a year
just to be sure. We had an outage during the summer of 2019 and even though the
repair estimate was only about 3 hours, I used it as a "live drill" opportunity and
ran the house on the generator during the outage.

On Thu, 18 Feb 2021 09:57:32 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 11:20:01 AM UTC-5, Dave in SoTex wrote:
On 2/18/2021 8:14 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
We haven't heard from you in a couple of days. I hope the weather hasn't impacted you too severely.

Let us know.
Leon may be w/o power or internet service or both. Much of
Houston's power has been restored. Just saw that there "only" about 45k
still w/o power vs. the high of 1.2 mil.
My NW-Harris-County power has now been on uninterrupted since 9:30
a.m. yesterday after 55 consecutive hours w/o. Night before last it was
52 degs in the house with but a puny gas log fireplace and some of the
gas stovetop burners for heat. I've had a Little Buddy propane heater
running on low in my well pumphouse continuously since Sunday.
Life seems almost back to "pandemic normal."

Dave in SoTex

"Just saw that there "only" about 45k still w/o power vs. the high of 1.2 mil. "

How many have homes that have been ruined by burst pipes? That's mainly what
you saw on the news but I don't recall seeing numbers on how many are in that
situation. Getting the power back on is great, but if the flooding damaged any of
the mechanicals or power equipment, they could still be in trouble heat wise.

Of course, it begs the question as to why they didn't let the water run before the
pipes burst. Ignorance, I guess.

Some did. Didn't help. The pipes froze anyway and it didn't help at
all when the had no electricity to the pump. I also heard that some
communities were without water. No electricity, no water.

We had a few ice storms in my area, the worst being back in the mid-80's. Five
days without power. Luckily, the temps hovered around 40, so it was cold, but not
dangerously so. Gas still worked so the stove provided some heat.

I've been in ice storms at both ends. One where it got back into the
50s and 60s. Everything in the freezer thawed. Another when it went
to zero and we froze.

Using the stove for heat is pretty dangerous. Not as bad as some
using their cars but...

Worst part was that I had just upgraded my furnace before that winter. The old
furnace had a manual valve that allowed the furnace to operate without power
as long as you adhered to a strict duty cycle. Code doesn't allow that these days.

I added a transfer switch and inlet a couple of years ago so I can use my generator
as long as I can get gas.

It doesn't take a lot of electricity to run a gas furnace. My father
was going to do it by putting a plug on the blow. He did know what he
was doing (an EE professor - power specialty) but code, and all that
rot.

On Thu, 18 Feb 2021 12:39:00 -0600, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet
wrote:

On 2/18/2021 11:57 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 11:20:01 AM UTC-5, Dave in SoTex wrote:
On 2/18/2021 8:14 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
We haven't heard from you in a couple of days. I hope the weather hasn't impacted you too severely.

Let us know.
Leon may be w/o power or internet service or both. Much of
Houston's power has been restored. Just saw that there "only" about 45k
still w/o power vs. the high of 1.2 mil.
My NW-Harris-County power has now been on uninterrupted since 9:30
a.m. yesterday after 55 consecutive hours w/o. Night before last it was
52 degs in the house with but a puny gas log fireplace and some of the
gas stovetop burners for heat. I've had a Little Buddy propane heater
running on low in my well pumphouse continuously since Sunday.
Life seems almost back to "pandemic normal."

Dave in SoTex

"Just saw that there "only" about 45k still w/o power vs. the high of 1.2 mil. "

Yes but it is daylight and warmer now. We will see at 9 pm tonight if
there are only 45k with out power.




How many have homes that have been ruined by burst pipes? That's mainly what
you saw on the news but I don't recall seeing numbers on how many are in that
situation. Getting the power back on is great, but if the flooding damaged any of
the mechanicals or power equipment, they could still be in trouble heat wise.

A lot of people have broken pipes. My son has a broken pipe.
Fortunately he shut the main valve going to his outside water softener
and drained the pipes in his house before the freeze. That main pipe
froze and broke outside the house and above ground. Hopefully that will
be the only problem. The next problem will be getting parts for this
easy repair.

Amazon.

WE left our water trickling at 3 sinks and have had no issues so far.
But we have a couple of nights with a hard freeze forecast, fortunately
only in the 20's, I hope. ;~)


Of course, it begs the question as to why they didn't let the water run before the
pipes burst. Ignorance, I guess.

;~) So the wise authorities say, "turn off the water coming into your
home and drain your pipes". This will prevent low water pressure...and
your pipes from freezing inside your home.


Sooooo if you do this you actually have NO water pressure. What is the
point of preserving pressure if every one turns their water off?

Stuff doesn't grow in the distribution system. If you lose pressure,
the whole system has to be purged, inspected, and holy water sprinkled
over the water, or something.

...

I added a transfer switch and inlet a couple of years ago so I can use my generator
as long as I can get gas.


I have a generator but did not really need it, it is not large enough
for much more than a few lights, freezer and fridge. Our freezer still
showed Zero degrees after 23 hours of no power.

We did get to listen, for 23 hours, to the whole house generator run 4
houses down.

Two neighbors, two houses on either side of us have them. We lose
power more often that we should but it's only been a problem once. We
have a gas fireplace so it helps a lot and we have blankets. My wife
with no TeeVee was the worst part of it.

On 2/18/2021 4:13 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 18 Feb 2021 09:57:32 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 11:20:01 AM UTC-5, Dave in SoTex wrote:
On 2/18/2021 8:14 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
We haven't heard from you in a couple of days. I hope the weather hasn't impacted you too severely.

Let us know.
Leon may be w/o power or internet service or both. Much of
Houston's power has been restored. Just saw that there "only" about 45k
still w/o power vs. the high of 1.2 mil.
My NW-Harris-County power has now been on uninterrupted since 9:30
a.m. yesterday after 55 consecutive hours w/o. Night before last it was
52 degs in the house with but a puny gas log fireplace and some of the
gas stovetop burners for heat. I've had a Little Buddy propane heater
running on low in my well pumphouse continuously since Sunday.
Life seems almost back to "pandemic normal."

Dave in SoTex

"Just saw that there "only" about 45k still w/o power vs. the high of 1.2 mil. "

How many have homes that have been ruined by burst pipes? That's mainly what
you saw on the news but I don't recall seeing numbers on how many are in that
situation. Getting the power back on is great, but if the flooding damaged any of
the mechanicals or power equipment, they could still be in trouble heat wise.

Of course, it begs the question as to why they didn't let the water run before the
pipes burst. Ignorance, I guess.

Some did. Didn't help. The pipes froze anyway and it didn't help at
all when the had no electricity to the pump. I also heard that some
communities were without water. No electricity, no water.

Yup! A lot of water outages, we had that problem for a short time. so
we boil our water that we are drinking out of the faucet.


We had a few ice storms in my area, the worst being back in the mid-80's. Five
days without power. Luckily, the temps hovered around 40, so it was cold, but not
dangerously so. Gas still worked so the stove provided some heat.

I've been in ice storms at both ends. One where it got back into the
50s and 60s. Everything in the freezer thawed. Another when it went
to zero and we froze.

Using the stove for heat is pretty dangerous. Not as bad as some
using their cars but...

Correct! And why vented hoods are installed over gas ranges. Same
emissions as a gas furnace and water heater, and those are vented outside.



Worst part was that I had just upgraded my furnace before that winter. The old
furnace had a manual valve that allowed the furnace to operate without power
as long as you adhered to a strict duty cycle. Code doesn't allow that these days.

I added a transfer switch and inlet a couple of years ago so I can use my generator
as long as I can get gas.

It doesn't take a lot of electricity to run a gas furnace. My father
was going to do it by putting a plug on the blow. He did know what he
was doing (an EE professor - power specialty) but code, and all that
rot.

On 2/18/2021 1:11 PM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:
On 2/18/2021 11:57 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 11:20:01 AM UTC-5, Dave in SoTex wrote:

;~) So the wise authorities say, "turn off the water coming into your
home and drain your pipes". This will prevent low water pressure...and
your pipes from freezing inside your home.


Sooooo if you do this you actually have NO water pressure. What is the
point of preserving pressure if every one turns their water off?

So that the fire hydrants still work. They're talking about [reventing
low system pressure (due to thousands of broken pipes), not your house pressure.



Sooo I can see that but there are broken fire hydrants too...spewing water.

Cousin in Clear Lake (SE Houston) lost power for part of one day and during daylight hours; water pressure down only slightly; has nat. gas so he was fine.
His wife was visiting her sister in Galveston: no power for several days; broken pipes, so no water. House is a wreck from water damage. They locked up everything this morning and headed to Clear Lake. I suppose the roads were clear enough to drive.

Some Texas folks evacuated to here, Lafayette, La. Quite a few parked over night in the RaceTrac (gas station) parking lot, near me. Huge icicles hanging on front and back bumpers, inside wheel wells, also.

Sonny

On 2/18/2021 4:19 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 18 Feb 2021 12:39:00 -0600, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet
wrote:

On 2/18/2021 11:57 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 11:20:01 AM UTC-5, Dave in SoTex wrote:
On 2/18/2021 8:14 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
We haven't heard from you in a couple of days. I hope the weather hasn't impacted you too severely.

Let us know.
Leon may be w/o power or internet service or both. Much of
Houston's power has been restored. Just saw that there "only" about 45k
still w/o power vs. the high of 1.2 mil.
My NW-Harris-County power has now been on uninterrupted since 9:30
a.m. yesterday after 55 consecutive hours w/o. Night before last it was
52 degs in the house with but a puny gas log fireplace and some of the
gas stovetop burners for heat. I've had a Little Buddy propane heater
running on low in my well pumphouse continuously since Sunday.
Life seems almost back to "pandemic normal."

Dave in SoTex

"Just saw that there "only" about 45k still w/o power vs. the high of 1.2 mil. "

Yes but it is daylight and warmer now. We will see at 9 pm tonight if
there are only 45k with out power.




How many have homes that have been ruined by burst pipes? That's mainly what
you saw on the news but I don't recall seeing numbers on how many are in that
situation. Getting the power back on is great, but if the flooding damaged any of
the mechanicals or power equipment, they could still be in trouble heat wise.

A lot of people have broken pipes. My son has a broken pipe.
Fortunately he shut the main valve going to his outside water softener
and drained the pipes in his house before the freeze. That main pipe
froze and broke outside the house and above ground. Hopefully that will
be the only problem. The next problem will be getting parts for this
easy repair.

Amazon.

Yes Amazon, he tried that and earliest arrival is early March...




WE left our water trickling at 3 sinks and have had no issues so far.
But we have a couple of nights with a hard freeze forecast, fortunately
only in the 20's, I hope. ;~)


Of course, it begs the question as to why they didn't let the water run before the
pipes burst. Ignorance, I guess.

;~) So the wise authorities say, "turn off the water coming into your
home and drain your pipes". This will prevent low water pressure...and
your pipes from freezing inside your home.


Sooooo if you do this you actually have NO water pressure. What is the
point of preserving pressure if every one turns their water off?

Stuff doesn't grow in the distribution system. If you lose pressure,
the whole system has to be purged, inspected, and holy water sprinkled
over the water, or something.


Doing that now. A major pump failed up line from our lake reservoir
north of houston two days ago. We had to revert back to our local well.

...

I added a transfer switch and inlet a couple of years ago so I can use my generator
as long as I can get gas.


I have a generator but did not really need it, it is not large enough
for much more than a few lights, freezer and fridge. Our freezer still
showed Zero degrees after 23 hours of no power.

We did get to listen, for 23 hours, to the whole house generator run 4
houses down.

Two neighbors, two houses on either side of us have them. We lose
power more often that we should but it's only been a problem once. We
have a gas fireplace so it helps a lot and we have blankets. My wife
with no TeeVee was the worst part of it.

On 2/18/2021 4:48 PM, Sonny wrote:
Cousin in Clear Lake (SE Houston) lost power for part of one day and during daylight hours; water pressure down only slightly; has nat. gas so he was fine.
His wife was visiting her sister in Galveston: no power for several days; broken pipes, so no water. House is a wreck from water damage. They locked up everything this morning and headed to Clear Lake. I suppose the roads were clear enough to drive.

We heard that Galveston lost 95% power. Water damage is a "thang" in
Galveston, hurricanes and all... sucks! Roads were decent yesterday
afternoon here in west Houston/Katy.




Some Texas folks evacuated to here, Lafayette, La. Quite a few parked over night in the RaceTrac (gas station) parking lot, near me. Huge icicles hanging on front and back bumpers, inside wheel wells, also.

Sonny


I was not sure you could get away from the cold on this one.. LOL

Both my truck and my wife's car had ice circles down to the ground. 3"
of snow and ice on my hood. And we still have some snow/ice in our
flower beds.

Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:
On 2/18/2021 1:11 PM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:
On 2/18/2021 11:57 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 11:20:01 AM UTC-5, Dave in SoTex wrote:

;~) So the wise authorities say, "turn off the water coming into your
home and drain your pipes". This will prevent low water pressure...and
your pipes from freezing inside your home.


Sooooo if you do this you actually have NO water pressure. What is the
point of preserving pressure if every one turns their water off?

So that the fire hydrants still work. They're talking about [reventing
low system pressure (due to thousands of broken pipes), not your house pressure.



Sooo I can see that but there are broken fire hydrants too...spewing water.

I suppose they didn't think it necessary to use the northern style
fire hydrants where the valve itself is belowground.

On 2/18/2021 5:06 PM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:
On 2/18/2021 1:11 PM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:
On 2/18/2021 11:57 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 11:20:01 AM UTC-5, Dave in SoTex wrote:

;~) So the wise authorities say, "turn off the water coming into your
home and drain your pipes". This will prevent low water pressure...and
your pipes from freezing inside your home.


Sooooo if you do this you actually have NO water pressure. What is the
point of preserving pressure if every one turns their water off?

So that the fire hydrants still work. They're talking about [reventing
low system pressure (due to thousands of broken pipes), not your house pressure.



Sooo I can see that but there are broken fire hydrants too...spewing water.

I suppose they didn't think it necessary to use the northern style
fire hydrants where the valve itself is belowground.



I do believe the valve is low but IIRC not below where it couples to the
main. That union is above ground and in some cases a few feet above
ground on the old ones, subsidence.

Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:
On 2/18/2021 5:06 PM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:
On 2/18/2021 1:11 PM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:

Sooo I can see that but there are broken fire hydrants too...spewing water.

I suppose they didn't think it necessary to use the northern style
fire hydrants where the valve itself is belowground.



I do believe the valve is low but IIRC not below where it couples to the
main. That union is above ground and in some cases a few feet above
ground on the old ones, subsidence.

https://gizmodo.com/why-fire-hydrant...ter-1619974872

I was not sure you could get away from the cold on this one.. LOL

We didn't. Got down to 17°, second coldest Mardi Gras ever. Got down to 15° in 1899, the year of the Valentines Day blizzard. We had rain (froze) and sleet.... probably some dusting of snow, but not during the day.
Roads iced over, preventing travel for only one day. I was prepared. Only time I went outside was to maintain water and food for the birds, squirrels, etc. Though windy-cold, it was kinna nice to get out for some fresh air. Lafayette had water pressure issues, but no boiling water advisories as with some towns. No power outages here, either.

Both my truck and my wife's car had ice circles down to the ground. 3"
of snow and ice on my hood. And we still have some snow/ice in our
flower beds.

Why are you parked outside? I thought you had built a house with a 3 car garage! You must have bought more than just a Sawstop (and didn't tell us) to fill those bays.

Sonny

On Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 5:13:35 PM UTC-5, wrote:
On Thu, 18 Feb 2021 09:57:32 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 11:20:01 AM UTC-5, Dave in SoTex wrote:
On 2/18/2021 8:14 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
We haven't heard from you in a couple of days. I hope the weather hasn't impacted you too severely.

Let us know.
Leon may be w/o power or internet service or both. Much of
Houston's power has been restored. Just saw that there "only" about 45k
still w/o power vs. the high of 1.2 mil.
My NW-Harris-County power has now been on uninterrupted since 9:30
a.m. yesterday after 55 consecutive hours w/o. Night before last it was
52 degs in the house with but a puny gas log fireplace and some of the
gas stovetop burners for heat. I've had a Little Buddy propane heater
running on low in my well pumphouse continuously since Sunday.
Life seems almost back to "pandemic normal."

Dave in SoTex

"Just saw that there "only" about 45k still w/o power vs. the high of 1.2 mil. "

How many have homes that have been ruined by burst pipes? That's mainly what
you saw on the news but I don't recall seeing numbers on how many are in that
situation. Getting the power back on is great, but if the flooding damaged any of
the mechanicals or power equipment, they could still be in trouble heat wise.

Of course, it begs the question as to why they didn't let the water run before the
pipes burst. Ignorance, I guess.
Some did. Didn't help. The pipes froze anyway and it didn't help at
all when the had no electricity to the pump. I also heard that some
communities were without water. No electricity, no water.
We had a few ice storms in my area, the worst being back in the mid-80's. Five
days without power. Luckily, the temps hovered around 40, so it was cold, but not
dangerously so. Gas still worked so the stove provided some heat.
I've been in ice storms at both ends. One where it got back into the
50s and 60s. Everything in the freezer thawed. Another when it went
to zero and we froze.

Using the stove for heat is pretty dangerous. Not as bad as some
using their cars but...
Worst part was that I had just upgraded my furnace before that winter. The old
furnace had a manual valve that allowed the furnace to operate without power
as long as you adhered to a strict duty cycle. Code doesn't allow that these days.

I added a transfer switch and inlet a couple of years ago so I can use my generator
as long as I can get gas.
It doesn't take a lot of electricity to run a gas furnace. My father
was going to do it by putting a plug on the blow. He did know what he
was doing (an EE professor - power specialty) but code, and all that
rot.

I almost did the plug thing. Well, I thought about. Not sure if I ever would have actually
done it.

When I decided to shop around for a generator, I was going to go small. Just enough
for the furnace, the fridge, freezer and a few lights. We can live pretty simply when
we have to. We both grew up that way, so it's no big deal.

I considered putting a single receptacle right near the emergency shut-off for the furnace,
and running a short cord with a plug into the emergency switch box. If there was a power
outage I could just unplug the furnace from the receptacle and plug it into an extension cord
from the generator. Definitely not code compliant during normal operation, but simple and
safe during an outage.

Lo and behold, I got a really good deal on a bigger generator so I went fully code compliant
with an interlock, inlet, properly rated generator cord, etc. I traded a couple of emails with
Fretwell (from a.h.r) just to make sure that I was doing everything right and that it would pass
inspection if it ever comes to that.

It's a pretty nice set-up that I'm fully confident with using.

In rec.woodworking, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:
I do believe the valve is low but IIRC not below where it couples to the
main. That union is above ground and in some cases a few feet above
ground on the old ones, subsidence.
https://gizmodo.com/why-fire-hydrant...ter-1619974872

That was in interesting read. It also answers a question I never cared
enough to search for an answer: why are fire hydrants sometimes called
"fire plugs"?

In a "this is rec.woodworking" vein, I'm now wondering how the logs were
hollowed out to make the wooden water mains. Drilling a hole lengthwise
through a log seems tricky enough with modern tools. Doing it in large
quantities before steam engines must have involved some interesting
techniques.

And more "Bonus Facts:" those fire cisterns mentioned as a "colonial"
water store for fire fighting? Still exist in San Francisco. SF has two
independent water systems. One is household and fire hydrants, one is
fire hydrant only, for backup. The two have different styles of
hydrants. Sometimes you'll see hydrants for each system next to each
other.

Better pictures:
https://www.amusingplanet.com/2021/0...-cisterns.html

More official:
https://sf-fire.org/water-supply-systems

Elijah
------
joining a collection of logs into a water main must have also been tricky

On Thu, 18 Feb 2021 23:06:14 GMT, (Scott Lurndal)
wrote:

Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:
On 2/18/2021 1:11 PM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:
On 2/18/2021 11:57 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 11:20:01 AM UTC-5, Dave in SoTex wrote:

;~) So the wise authorities say, "turn off the water coming into your
home and drain your pipes". This will prevent low water pressure...and
your pipes from freezing inside your home.


Sooooo if you do this you actually have NO water pressure. What is the
point of preserving pressure if every one turns their water off?

So that the fire hydrants still work. They're talking about [reventing
low system pressure (due to thousands of broken pipes), not your house pressure.



Sooo I can see that but there are broken fire hydrants too...spewing water.

I suppose they didn't think it necessary to use the northern style
fire hydrants where the valve itself is belowground.

Or silcocks with the valve well inside the structure (and pipes routed
inside). For once in 120 year problem, it's probably more expensive
than it's worth, if anyone in Texas even remembers how to do it.

When I lived in Vermont, one Winter we had water mains 7' down,
freeze. It got very cold right after a good thaw. The saturated soil
allowed the frost line to go down very deep, very fast.

I did have a frost-free silcock freeze once. I forgot a hose
connected to it. As it froze, the silcock froze and cracked because
it couldn't drain.

On 2/18/2021 5:55 PM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:
On 2/18/2021 5:06 PM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:
On 2/18/2021 1:11 PM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:

Sooo I can see that but there are broken fire hydrants too...spewing water.

I suppose they didn't think it necessary to use the northern style
fire hydrants where the valve itself is belowground.



I do believe the valve is low but IIRC not below where it couples to the
main. That union is above ground and in some cases a few feet above
ground on the old ones, subsidence.

https://gizmodo.com/why-fire-hydrant...ter-1619974872



Good to know. But the news has shown some broken fire hydrants. Could
be for other reasons. In our next MUD meeting I will ask our operator
what is going on.

Sonny wrote:

I was not sure you could get away from the cold on this one.. LOL

We didn't. Got down to 17°, second coldest Mardi Gras ever. Got down to 15° in 1899, the year of the Valentines Day blizzard. We had rain (froze) and sleet.... probably some dusting of snow, but not during the day.
Roads iced over, preventing travel for only one day. I was prepared. Only time I went outside was to maintain water and food for the birds, squirrels, etc. Though windy-cold, it was kinna nice to get out for some fresh air. Lafayette had water pressure issues, but no boiling water advisories as with some towns. No power outages here, either.

Both my truck and my wife's car had ice circles down to the ground. 3"
of snow and ice on my hood. And we still have some snow/ice in our
flower beds.

Why are you parked outside? I thought you had built a house with a 3 car garage! You must have bought more than just a Sawstop (and didn't tell us) to fill those bays.

Sonny

Glad you can remember the 1899 Freeze. I can barely remember 1999.

--
G Ross

On Friday, February 19, 2021 at 7:39:23 AM UTC-5, G Ross wrote:
Sonny wrote:

I was not sure you could get away from the cold on this one.. LOL

We didn't. Got down to 17°, second coldest Mardi Gras ever. Got down to 15° in 1899, the year of the Valentines Day blizzard.. We had rain (froze) and sleet.... probably some dusting of snow, but not during the day.
Roads iced over, preventing travel for only one day. I was prepared. Only time I went outside was to maintain water and food for the birds, squirrels, etc. Though windy-cold, it was kinna nice to get out for some fresh air. Lafayette had water pressure issues, but no boiling water advisories as with some towns. No power outages here, either.

Both my truck and my wife's car had ice circles down to the ground. 3"
of snow and ice on my hood. And we still have some snow/ice in our
flower beds.

Why are you parked outside? I thought you had built a house with a 3 car garage! You must have bought more than just a Sawstop (and didn't tell us) to fill those bays.

Sonny

Glad you can remember the 1899 Freeze. I can barely remember 1999.


This should help...

https://youtu.be/rblt2EtFfC4

On 2/18/2021 5:58 PM, Sonny wrote:

I was not sure you could get away from the cold on this one.. LOL

We didn't. Got down to 17°, second coldest Mardi Gras ever. Got down to 15° in 1899, the year of the Valentines Day blizzard. We had rain (froze) and sleet.... probably some dusting of snow, but not during the day.
Roads iced over, preventing travel for only one day. I was prepared. Only time I went outside was to maintain water and food for the birds, squirrels, etc. Though windy-cold, it was kinna nice to get out for some fresh air. Lafayette had water pressure issues, but no boiling water advisories as with some towns. No power outages here, either.


Dang Sonny you remember the 1899 freeze? LOL... Darn typo's

We were at 7 degrees on Dec 23 , 1989. That was pretty chilly and no
power issues.


Both my truck and my wife's car had ice circles down to the ground. 3"
of snow and ice on my hood. And we still have some snow/ice in our
flower beds.

The snow and ice, in our gutters around the house, is finally melting
and it crashes with a relatively loud bang when it falls down the down
spout.



Why are you parked outside? I thought you had built a house with a 3 car garage! You must have bought more than just a Sawstop (and didn't tell us) to fill those bays.

Wellllll my wife's car comes in over night. All of my equipment spreads
into all 3 bays on mobile bases when I am working. I am in the middle
of a kitchen redo and her car sleeps outside when I'm working.



Sonny

On Friday, February 19, 2021 at 9:35:59 AM UTC-6, Leon wrote:

Dang Sonny you remember the 1899 freeze? LOL... Darn typo's

Not a typo. It's rare we have sustained temps below 32. Local news pointed out the 1899 record low for Mardi Gras, how close we came to it and that year's Valentine's Day blizzard. The duration of this cold spell is just as rare. I kinna like this long of freezing weather. It'll help reduce the summer-time insects. I bought enhanced bird feed (more nuts) for the wildlife. In the mornings they are waiting for me. Lots of doves come to eat and drink in the evenings.

Only woodworking lately:
Last week I altered a sewing machine cabinet for a handicapped lady, to install her new sewing machine. Delivered it 2 days ago. Needed to mount the foot petal on the inside of the cabinet in a knee petal position, to accommodate her handicapped legs. To mount the petal for an adjustable knee height, if needed, we tried a velcro attachment, which didn't work. Today, I'll go back and attach the petal with screws (fixed position). We'll see how this works out (non-adjustable height). The idea of an adjustable height knee petal: We're trying to anticipate future "problems" per her handicap.

The iron-on velcro stickum backing (for attaching to fabric) didn't adhere very well, at all, to both the metal foot petal nor the cabinet's finish. I didn't have any other type of velcro.

Sonny

On Friday, February 19, 2021 at 10:35:59 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
On 2/18/2021 5:58 PM, Sonny wrote:

I was not sure you could get away from the cold on this one.. LOL

We didn't. Got down to 17°, second coldest Mardi Gras ever. Got down to 15° in 1899, the year of the Valentines Day blizzard. We had rain (froze) and sleet.... probably some dusting of snow, but not during the day.
Roads iced over, preventing travel for only one day. I was prepared. Only time I went outside was to maintain water and food for the birds, squirrels, etc. Though windy-cold, it was kinna nice to get out for some fresh air. Lafayette had water pressure issues, but no boiling water advisories as with some towns. No power outages here, either.
Dang Sonny you remember the 1899 freeze? LOL... Darn typo's

We were at 7 degrees on Dec 23 , 1989. That was pretty chilly and no
power issues.

Both my truck and my wife's car had ice circles down to the ground. 3"
of snow and ice on my hood. And we still have some snow/ice in our
flower beds.
The snow and ice, in our gutters around the house, is finally melting
and it crashes with a relatively loud bang when it falls down the down
spout.

I used to have ice-melt wires on my roof to prevent ice dams.

When I had my roof replaced a bunch of years ago, I had them open up the
soffits and use a ridge vent instead of box vents. I then installed those
styrofoam soffit baffles to increase the air flow through the attic. What a
PITA!

https://media.cmsmax.com/i0tjfpy8qhi...93-400x300.jpg

No more cables and I haven't had an ice dam since.

Obviously, you don't have these issues every winter, so it's probably not worth the
effort/expense.

They say that tossing a sock full of ice melt/rock salt up onto the roof, just
above the gutter, will create a channel for the snow melt and prevent ice
dams. That's essentially what the ice melt cables do.

The real solution is to keep the main roof cold (soffit vents, baffles, ridge vents)
so that the snow doesn't melt up high and then freeze when it hits the unheated
soffit. That's what causes ice dams and icicles. If it gets bad enough, the snow
melt hits the dam and backs up under the shingles and into the house.

That really sucks.

On Friday, February 19, 2021 at 11:12:08 AM UTC-5, Sonny wrote:
On Friday, February 19, 2021 at 9:35:59 AM UTC-6, Leon wrote:

Dang Sonny you remember the 1899 freeze? LOL... Darn typo's
Not a typo. It's rare we have sustained temps below 32. Local news pointed out the 1899 record low for Mardi Gras, how close we came to it and that year's Valentine's Day blizzard. The duration of this cold spell is just as rare. I kinna like this long of freezing weather. It'll help reduce the summer-time insects. I bought enhanced bird feed (more nuts) for the wildlife.. In the mornings they are waiting for me. Lots of doves come to eat and drink in the evenings.


It was the way your post was written that got us all chuckling.

You said "Got down to 15° in 1899" and then immediately (on the same line) described
what happened this week. It reads as if it was a description of what happened in 1899.

I figured out what you were actually saying but it made me chuckle too.

On 18/02/2021 10:19 am, Dave in SoTex wrote:
On 2/18/2021 8:14 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
We haven't heard from you in a couple of days. I hope the weather hasn't
impacted you too severely.

Let us know.

Â*Â*Â*Â* Leon may be w/o power or internet service or both.Â* Much of Houston's
power has been restored.Â* Just saw that there "only" about 45k still w/o power
vs. the high of 1.2 mil.
Â*Â*Â*Â* My NW-Harris-County power has now been on uninterrupted since 9:30 a.m.
yesterday after 55 consecutive hours w/o.Â* Night before last it was 52 degs in
the house with but a puny gas log fireplace and some of the gas stovetop burners
for heat.Â* I've had a Little Buddy propane heater running on low in my well
pumphouse continuously since Sunday.
Â*Â*Â*Â* Life seems almost back to "pandemic normal."

Dave in SoTex


Cheers from San Antonio, TX

Lost the Interned around Sun 14. Managed to keep informed with my Android.
Internet (att) returned 10:30. Had a few power and water shortages but nothing
bad for me. Stayed nice and warm where I'm at. Didn't get much snow here. Maybe
2 inches. Ice has been bad on the freeway.

On 2/19/2021 10:12 AM, Sonny wrote:
On Friday, February 19, 2021 at 9:35:59 AM UTC-6, Leon wrote:

Dang Sonny you remember the 1899 freeze? LOL... Darn typo's

Not a typo. It's rare we have sustained temps below 32. Local news pointed out the 1899 record low for Mardi Gras, how close we came to it and that year's Valentine's Day blizzard. The duration of this cold spell is just as rare. I kinna like this long of freezing weather. It'll help reduce the summer-time insects. I bought enhanced bird feed (more nuts) for the wildlife. In the mornings they are waiting for me. Lots of doves come to eat and drink in the evenings.


Got it!

Only woodworking lately:
Last week I altered a sewing machine cabinet for a handicapped lady, to install her new sewing machine. Delivered it 2 days ago. Needed to mount the foot petal on the inside of the cabinet in a knee petal position, to accommodate her handicapped legs. To mount the petal for an adjustable knee height, if needed, we tried a velcro attachment, which didn't work. Today, I'll go back and attach the petal with screws (fixed position). We'll see how this works out (non-adjustable height). The idea of an adjustable height knee petal: We're trying to anticipate future "problems" per her handicap.

The iron-on velcro stickum backing (for attaching to fabric) didn't adhere very well, at all, to both the metal foot petal nor the cabinet's finish. I didn't have any other type of velcro.


I have had some luck using super glue along with adhesive backed velcro.



Sonny

On 2/19/2021 5:29 PM, gray_wolf wrote:
On 18/02/2021 10:19 am, Dave in SoTex wrote:
On 2/18/2021 8:14 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
We haven't heard from you in a couple of days. I hope the weather
hasn't impacted you too severely.

Let us know.

Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* Leon may be w/o power or internet service or both.Â* Much of
Houston's power has been restored.Â* Just saw that there "only" about
45k still w/o power vs. the high of 1.2 mil.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* My NW-Harris-County power has now been on uninterrupted since
9:30 a.m. yesterday after 55 consecutive hours w/o.Â* Night before last
it was 52 degs in the house with but a puny gas log fireplace and some
of the gas stovetop burners for heat.Â* I've had a Little Buddy propane
heater running on low in my well pumphouse continuously since Sunday.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* Life seems almost back to "pandemic normal."

Dave in SoTex


Cheers from San Antonio, TX

Lost the Interned around Sun 14. Managed to keep informedÂ* with my
Android. Internet (att) returnedÂ* 10:30.Â* Had a few power and water
shortages but nothing bad for me. Stayed nice and warm where I'm at.
Didn't get much snow here. Maybe 2 inches.Â* Ice has been bad on the
freeway.



Hey! good for you surviving the weather!! About the same here, still
have snow/ice on the ground in spots but nothing on the streets since
yesterday.

hOn Fri, 19 Feb 2021 08:30:24 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Friday, February 19, 2021 at 10:35:59 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
On 2/18/2021 5:58 PM, Sonny wrote:

I was not sure you could get away from the cold on this one.. LOL

We didn't. Got down to 17°, second coldest Mardi Gras ever. Got down to 15° in 1899, the year of the Valentines Day blizzard. We had rain (froze) and sleet.... probably some dusting of snow, but not during the day.
Roads iced over, preventing travel for only one day. I was prepared. Only time I went outside was to maintain water and food for the birds, squirrels, etc. Though windy-cold, it was kinna nice to get out for some fresh air. Lafayette had water pressure issues, but no boiling water advisories as with some towns. No power outages here, either.
Dang Sonny you remember the 1899 freeze? LOL... Darn typo's

We were at 7 degrees on Dec 23 , 1989. That was pretty chilly and no
power issues.

Both my truck and my wife's car had ice circles down to the ground. 3"
of snow and ice on my hood. And we still have some snow/ice in our
flower beds.
The snow and ice, in our gutters around the house, is finally melting
and it crashes with a relatively loud bang when it falls down the down
spout.

I used to have ice-melt wires on my roof to prevent ice dams.

When I had my roof replaced a bunch of years ago, I had them open up the
soffits and use a ridge vent instead of box vents. I then installed those
styrofoam soffit baffles to increase the air flow through the attic. What a
PITA!

https://media.cmsmax.com/i0tjfpy8qhi...93-400x300.jpg

That's what everyone does in the North. It's a good idea down here,
too. It's a good way of cooling the attic, both winter and summer.

No more cables and I haven't had an ice dam since.

Obviously, you don't have these issues every winter, so it's probably not worth the
effort/expense.

Ice dams will ruin a roof, and the ceiling inside.

They say that tossing a sock full of ice melt/rock salt up onto the roof, just
above the gutter, will create a channel for the snow melt and prevent ice
dams. That's essentially what the ice melt cables do.

The real solution is to keep the main roof cold (soffit vents, baffles, ridge vents)
so that the snow doesn't melt up high and then freeze when it hits the unheated
soffit. That's what causes ice dams and icicles. If it gets bad enough, the snow
melt hits the dam and backs up under the shingles and into the house.

Into the house. They also use "Ice and Water shield" for the first
4-6' of the roof. It's a thick film with sticky on one side to stick
to the decking. The stuff is made to seal nail holes. Even with a
cold roof, ice dams happen (lotsa snow) and the I&WS keeps the water
out of the house.

That really sucks.

On 2/19/2021 9:35 AM, Leon wrote:


We were at 7 degrees on Dec 23 , 1989.Â* That was pretty chilly and no
power issues.

Five [?] consecutive days that temps never got above freezing. I
recall driving the '79 Ford van slowly home from downton Houston [after
the Christmas eve half work day] to the Post Oak / Willowbend area on
patchy ice, sleet and a little snow.

Dave in SoTex

On Friday, February 19, 2021 at 10:22:49 PM UTC-5, wrote:
hOn Fri, 19 Feb 2021 08:30:24 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Friday, February 19, 2021 at 10:35:59 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
On 2/18/2021 5:58 PM, Sonny wrote:

I was not sure you could get away from the cold on this one.. LOL

We didn't. Got down to 17°, second coldest Mardi Gras ever. Got down to 15° in 1899, the year of the Valentines Day blizzard. We had rain (froze) and sleet.... probably some dusting of snow, but not during the day.
Roads iced over, preventing travel for only one day. I was prepared. Only time I went outside was to maintain water and food for the birds, squirrels, etc. Though windy-cold, it was kinna nice to get out for some fresh air. Lafayette had water pressure issues, but no boiling water advisories as with some towns. No power outages here, either.
Dang Sonny you remember the 1899 freeze? LOL... Darn typo's

We were at 7 degrees on Dec 23 , 1989. That was pretty chilly and no
power issues.

Both my truck and my wife's car had ice circles down to the ground. 3"
of snow and ice on my hood. And we still have some snow/ice in our
flower beds.
The snow and ice, in our gutters around the house, is finally melting
and it crashes with a relatively loud bang when it falls down the down
spout.

I used to have ice-melt wires on my roof to prevent ice dams.

When I had my roof replaced a bunch of years ago, I had them open up the
soffits and use a ridge vent instead of box vents. I then installed those
styrofoam soffit baffles to increase the air flow through the attic. What a
PITA!

https://media.cmsmax.com/i0tjfpy8qhi...93-400x300.jpg
That's what everyone does in the North. It's a good idea down here,
too. It's a good way of cooling the attic, both winter and summer.

No more cables and I haven't had an ice dam since.

Obviously, you don't have these issues every winter, so it's probably not worth the
effort/expense.
Ice dams will ruin a roof, and the ceiling inside.
They say that tossing a sock full of ice melt/rock salt up onto the roof, just
above the gutter, will create a channel for the snow melt and prevent ice
dams. That's essentially what the ice melt cables do.

The real solution is to keep the main roof cold (soffit vents, baffles, ridge vents)
so that the snow doesn't melt up high and then freeze when it hits the unheated
soffit. That's what causes ice dams and icicles. If it gets bad enough, the snow
melt hits the dam and backs up under the shingles and into the house.
Into the house. They also use "Ice and Water shield" for the first
4-6' of the roof. It's a thick film with sticky on one side to stick
to the decking. The stuff is made to seal nail holes. Even with a
cold roof, ice dams happen (lotsa snow) and the I&WS keeps the water
out of the house.


Depending on the slope, they may use more I&WS than just the first few feet..

I have a 1 story addition off the back of my house with a roof flat enough that
it probably should have roll roofing. MSR, TPO, etc.

Since the roof comes right up to bottom of my bedroom window and I don't
want to see roll roofing in between the window and the beautiful red maple
just beyond the addition, the roofer suggested I&WS shield on the entire roof.
Architectural shingles look much better than roll roofing.

On Sat, 20 Feb 2021 04:48:01 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Friday, February 19, 2021 at 10:22:49 PM UTC-5, wrote:
hOn Fri, 19 Feb 2021 08:30:24 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Friday, February 19, 2021 at 10:35:59 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
On 2/18/2021 5:58 PM, Sonny wrote:

I was not sure you could get away from the cold on this one.. LOL

We didn't. Got down to 17°, second coldest Mardi Gras ever. Got down to 15° in 1899, the year of the Valentines Day blizzard. We had rain (froze) and sleet.... probably some dusting of snow, but not during the day.
Roads iced over, preventing travel for only one day. I was prepared. Only time I went outside was to maintain water and food for the birds, squirrels, etc. Though windy-cold, it was kinna nice to get out for some fresh air. Lafayette had water pressure issues, but no boiling water advisories as with some towns. No power outages here, either.
Dang Sonny you remember the 1899 freeze? LOL... Darn typo's

We were at 7 degrees on Dec 23 , 1989. That was pretty chilly and no
power issues.

Both my truck and my wife's car had ice circles down to the ground. 3"
of snow and ice on my hood. And we still have some snow/ice in our
flower beds.
The snow and ice, in our gutters around the house, is finally melting
and it crashes with a relatively loud bang when it falls down the down
spout.

I used to have ice-melt wires on my roof to prevent ice dams.

When I had my roof replaced a bunch of years ago, I had them open up the
soffits and use a ridge vent instead of box vents. I then installed those
styrofoam soffit baffles to increase the air flow through the attic. What a
PITA!

https://media.cmsmax.com/i0tjfpy8qhi...93-400x300.jpg
That's what everyone does in the North. It's a good idea down here,
too. It's a good way of cooling the attic, both winter and summer.

No more cables and I haven't had an ice dam since.

Obviously, you don't have these issues every winter, so it's probably not worth the
effort/expense.
Ice dams will ruin a roof, and the ceiling inside.
They say that tossing a sock full of ice melt/rock salt up onto the roof, just
above the gutter, will create a channel for the snow melt and prevent ice
dams. That's essentially what the ice melt cables do.

The real solution is to keep the main roof cold (soffit vents, baffles, ridge vents)
so that the snow doesn't melt up high and then freeze when it hits the unheated
soffit. That's what causes ice dams and icicles. If it gets bad enough, the snow
melt hits the dam and backs up under the shingles and into the house.
Into the house. They also use "Ice and Water shield" for the first
4-6' of the roof. It's a thick film with sticky on one side to stick
to the decking. The stuff is made to seal nail holes. Even with a
cold roof, ice dams happen (lotsa snow) and the I&WS keeps the water
out of the house.


Depending on the slope, they may use more I&WS than just the first few feet.

I have a 1 story addition off the back of my house with a roof flat enough that
it probably should have roll roofing. MSR, TPO, etc.

Since the roof comes right up to bottom of my bedroom window and I don't
want to see roll roofing in between the window and the beautiful red maple
just beyond the addition, the roofer suggested I&WS shield on the entire roof.
Architectural shingles look much better than roll roofing.

Right. My VT house was a cape with a shed dormer on the back. When
the rolled roofing on the dormer failed (the roofer said we did very
well to have it 10 years), he suggested the I$WS and normal shingles,
even thought the pitch was only 2:12. I don't remember he put on
architectural or 3-tab. There's no place on earth that they could be
seen so they were probably 3-tab.