Anyone ever use freeze protection valves?

[Torvy]

I am struck by how cold it can get down by Dallas as compared to Western Washington. Your low temps can be colder than ours even tough we are at the same latitude as North Dakota. The Pacific Ocean has a considerable effect on temps.

We used to live 20 miles inland from Milwaukee. The difference was often 10 degrees different from us and the lakeshore. Always more mild by big bodies of water. Oceans have a bigger effect being both larger and salted.

It will get to freezing down here and sometimes will dip below 20.

Growing up in NE SD...we experienced temps that run 40 to 60 degrees colder than down here in the winter.

 

[gsganzer]

My deal is that over the next month, the house won't be continuously occupied, which is what scares the bejeebers out of me. I'm heading over there today to work on the chicken coop and make sure I haven't missed anything in the freeze-proof department.

The one thing I need to add is a 120vac plug in the well house. This is one of those things that I can't believe wasn't there in the first place. The previous owner has been running a 100' extension cord to the well house to run a heat lamp. I'm doing the same thing, until I add this plug. It's easy enough to take a hot and neutral from the 220V and set up a fused 15A plug to run a heater.

 

[Shenandoah MF1760]

Always more mild by big bodies of water.

I concur. I lived in Bayou Vista just across from Galveston for a bit and noticed it was always warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, by around 10'F +/- than if you when up into Houston.

Although, when Houston is 104'F being at 94'F with high humidity isn't that much, if any, of a relief.

 

[ponytug]

This has got me to thinking... it's rough to start nowadays, but I eventually get up to speed.

I'm almost in our new house. It has fully foamed interior insulation - attic & all exterior walls. The wiring and plumbing came after, and all of the pumping except for the fixtures are PEX.

All of my previous houses have had black iron piping and were not all that well insulated, so the heat would conduct along the black iron enough that I never had to worry about spigots freezing.

PEX probably doesn't conduct heat at all, or very little, leaving the spigots to be roughly the same as the outside temperature.

This begs the question as to whether those foam caps would be effective or not. I may have to look into those Freeze Mizers or some such solution.

It doesn't freeze often or for very long down here down here, but like Hurricanes when it does happen it creates a mess you'd rather not deal with, and it's best to plan ahead.

My folks had that, with the Woodford type freezeless spigots. I would comment that they, like any valve, eventually leak, and a valve just inside of the fixture can make servicing easier.

FWIW: I've used the faucet covers, and frankly, I found them to be fiddly at best. The ones I bought, with a nice plastic exterior to shed rain/snow/ice, and styrofoam interior, only had about 1/2" of foam inside, so I have my doubts about how well they would function in places where it gets colder than 27F. I now use pool noodles to cover the pipe and spigot, covered by plastic sacking (feed bags), which seem to work much better here.

All the best,

Peter

 

[grsthegreat]

My deal is that over the next month, the house won't be continuously occupied, which is what scares the bejeebers out of me. I'm heading over there today to work on the chicken coop and make sure I haven't missed anything in the freeze-proof department.

The one thing I need to add is a 120vac plug in the well house. This is one of those things that I can't believe wasn't there in the first place. The previous owner has been running a 100' extension cord to the well house to run a heat lamp. I'm doing the same thing, until I add this plug. It's easy enough to take a hot and neutral from the 220V and set up a fused 15A plug to run a heater.

Depends on the load of the well pump. Most heaters can pull 1500 watts. If the well circuit is just designed to handle the starting load on the pump, this im alance may tirp the circuit.

But some well houses have oversized power runs. Also, is it a true 4 wire run or is it just 2 hots and a grounded run. Big difference.

 

[gsganzer]

Depends on the load of the well pump. Most heaters can pull 1500 watts. If the well circuit is just designed to handle the starting load on the pump, this im alance may tirp the circuit.

But some well houses have oversized power runs. Also, is it a true 4 wire run or is it just 2 hots and a grounded run. Big difference.

This won't require any more than a 250 watt bulb, but yes, I'll need to confirm. Understood on the 3 vs 4 wire. I'll check again, but I believe it was 4 wires, 2 hots, neutral and ground. I need to check the conduit size, might be possible to pull a dedicated 120 from the panel for freeze protection.

I'm so busy right now with work and moving, it's likely I'll turn this project over to an electrician anyway. I'm making a list for any other electrical assistance I need, so I can do it all in one shot.