Submitted by ZzzZzzZzz1978 t3_zvb7hy in Maine
I’m in Yarmouth. Power’s been out since Friday night. Have been running a heater on and off to keep it liveable in the house (also to reheat pizza). I have all my faucets open to a trickle. Here’s my question: How cold can it get inside the house before I need to worry about pipes getting damaged?
Thanks Mainahs! Stay strong!
All depends on where the most vulnerable pipes are. Watch for any that are close to outside walls/foundation, especially near drafts if it’s an older house.
How do you heat your home? Warm air or baseboards?
Only base boards.
Open up any cabinets and/or closets so heat can circulate around your pipes. There can be cold spots in the exterior walls that can lead to pipes freezing.
I’d go check your boiler and make sure none of those pipes are too cold..
For us, no power means no water to trickle.
The last outage we had, my friend had no power for 3 days and no generator or any heat. They didn’t have any issues, but the temps were a bit milder last week. Honestly I don’t know, it’s so stressful 😵💫
Get power back yet seems like many got it back last night
Yea but opening the faucets some will still relieve some of the pressure in the pipes and could make a difference in whether they burst when/if they do freeze.
You could find the lowest faucet in your house, open it and then open every other faucet in the house. This can atleast help drain a bit of the water from the pipes and also remove a chunk of the pressure so that if they do freeze they will have a lower chance of busting open. Opening any faucets and removing pressure from the lines is atleast better than not.
DM CMP’s Twitter and tell them the exact coordinates and that you’re entire stree has not power still and you’re freezing and running low on fuel. I DMed them three times and they fixed my neighbor and my street. It’s honestly shocking they take Twitter dms more seriously
You're assuming it had anything to do with your tweets. They have systems in place to triage the issue. They're not going to change course just because you tweeted at them.
Oh stop. Here’s my proof:
We had a tree leaning on our power lines on my land. They didn’t come through regular support. So I messaged them syaing it’s urgent and we could lose power. They came in a few hours.
My street had three lines down. I messaged them and they replied they’ll send a team our.
It fkn worked four times.
Don’t be negative
Power is back on and near as I can tell, nothing is leaking. Thanks for the advice and help friends!
z-eldapin t1_j1o6jpz wrote
Inside heat isn't going to help your pipes.
Keep the water lines at a trickle