Texas has experienced some severe winter weather in recent winters. Frozen pipes and power outages are major inconveniences and can cause damage to your home. There are several quick and easy steps that you can take to protect your home from the freezing temperatures.
Preparing Your Pipes
The biggest concern for most homeowners in freezing weather is protecting pipes. When water freezes, it expands and can split the pipes or break the joints, which then leak when the ice inside melts. City maintained water lines are located in the ground. They connect to a water meter in your front, side, or rear yard. From this meter, the water line runs through the yard, into your slab, and up a wall into the attic space where it branches off to various locations in the home.
If you will be occupying the home during the freeze, the best way to prepare your plumbing is as follows:
Remove all garden hoses or attachments to outside plumbing fixtures and drain them.
Insulate your exterior hose bibs by installing an insulated cover. These are inexpensive and can be picked up at most hardware stores. If you cannot find a cover, you can wrap old towels/clothes around the hose bibs and duct tape them in place.
Wrap any other exposed exterior pipes with insulating foam or old towels/clothes.
Turn off your sprinkler system.
Turn on several faucets so that they drip lightly. This allows water to continue to flow through the pipes which discourages freezing.
If you will not be occupying the home during the freeze, the best way to prepare your plumbing is as follows:
Remove all garden hoses or attachments to outside plumbing fixtures an drain them.
Insulate your exterior hose bibs by installing an insulated cover. These are inexpensive, effective, and can be picked up at most hardware stores. If you cannot find a cover, you can wrap old towels/clothes around the hose bibs and duct tape them in place.
Wrap any other exposed exterior pipes with insulating foam or old towels/clothes.
Turn off your sprinkler system.
Turn off water to the home at the water meter (located in a box in your front/side/rear yard).
Run a hose bib on the farthest location in the home from the water meter until little to no water comes out and then return it to the ‘off’ position. This will eliminate most of the water in your cold-water lines which are the ones most susceptible to freezing.
Preparing Your Heat Pump HVAC System
If your home uses an electric HVAC system (as opposed to natural gas or propane), then it runs primarily on a heat pump unit. Heat pumps are efficient and effective in most temperatures but become less effective below 35 degrees. As the temperatures drop below freezing, heat pump units must work increasingly hard to heat your home. This excessive workload can damage the unit over time. We recommend running the “Emergency Heat” mode when sustained temperatures are below freezing. Emergency Heat mode utilizes electric strips in the HVAC unit to heat the air. These consume substantially more electricity so should only be used when necessary and the thermostat should be kept at the lowest temperature at which you are safe and reasonably comfortable.