My house was built 3 years ago with radiant floor heating in my basement which is living quarters. In the event of a power outage during a winter storm, my heating system would not run. What I need is ball park figure of the time that it would take to start freezing the water lines that are constructed within the cement slab floor. A brief outage obviously would be no problem. Lets say that at 10 F. the ice covered electric lines took 12 hours to get up and running. Probably, still cool. But at what length of time should I seriously consider going into debt for a generator? I'd rather buy a new genny than replace a radiant heating system. Or some Kerosone heaters to put on basement floor? We can survive without electric and provide some heat for the house for a few days but what would the danger be the the floor pipes freezing up because the water is not flowing. I have two non-electric heating devices for a 44x28 house, furnished basement & main floor. How prepared do I need to be?
2007-02-12 08:33:32 · 6 answers · asked by beakster505 1 in Home & Garden ➔ Maintenance & Repairs
it is certain that the fluid in your heating system is a mix of antifreeze and water a modern system should have this since it is more efficient and probably code in most areas.
2007-02-12 15:27:45 · answer #1 · answered by Pat B 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Here in MI the temp has been 0F--10F. This is normal for us. Even at these temps. Pipes inside the home will not freeze for 5 days or more. If you have an extended time without heat, a kerosene heater run a couple hours per day will prevent temps inside the house from freezing. I don't know about floor heating pipes but I don't think they would freeze any sooner than water pipes.
2007-02-12 10:07:44 · answer #2 · answered by morris 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hopefully the fluid in your radiant system is a mixture that won't freeze until it gets to -30 F in the ground. That is not likely to happen, but you need to make sure you have antifreeze in your system and not just plain water.
2007-02-12 08:38:52 · answer #3 · answered by united9198 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
nicely as long as you maintain a trickle of water working interior the sinks whether it is chilly water the pipes won't freeze for a on a similar time as water in basic terms freezes if the pipes have not got working water in em and it is going stagnant and turns to ice for this reason water pipe freeze up and burst
2016-12-17 08:27:28 · answer #4 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
well i turned mine off to early and it was cold was out of town for two weeks looks like its working
2015-04-05 11:16:21 · answer #5 · answered by Don 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I WOULD NOT WORRY ABOUT ANY THING. YOU HAVE TO REMEMBER YOUR PEX LINES ARE INCASED IN CONCRETE THEY MAY GET A LITTLE COLD BUT I DOUBT THEY WILL FREEZE. AND IF THEY DO THE WONT BREAK.THERE IS NO PLACE FOR THEM TO EXPAND TO.
2007-02-12 10:25:23 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋