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Lessons learned - My story

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    Lessons learned - My story

    I thought I had all my bases covered and that's what I get for thinking. We made it pretty good but learned a few lessons.

    I was set up for worse case in Texas (thinking hot, not cold). We have a 2,500 gallon water holding tank and even installed a way to run the well off a generator.


    And a propane freezer for when the power goes off.


    We also have 2- 250 gallon propane tanks at the house and 1 at the cabin. No pic of the cabin one.


    We used our wood burning stove to stay warm and to cook on/in.


    Didn't plan on power outage in the middle of the night and it being zero degrees outside. So that froze the entire system very quickly.

    Never figured this tank would freeze. This pic was taken today. A lot of the snow melted yesterday but this tank was still pretty frozen.



    So long story short we just went without water for 3-4 days. Easy enough, just melted snow and used pond water to flush toilets. Plus we already had some drinking water in house and cabin. And now have to fix a couple leaks and repair out hot water heater. Lots of hand/foot warmers we had stock piled came in real handy.

    The lesson learned is to drain entire water system completely if temps are to get below 20 degrees and never depend or think there will be power (I think everyone learned this lesson now).

    I plan to winterize the few weak spots. One was were critters are away the insulation off some PVC. And better protect the line going from big water tank into pumphouse..Maybe bury it? And then get a propane adapter and be ready to use a buddy heater/20lb bottle to keep pumphouse warm if electric goes off.

    Other than protecting things from freezing we figured we should do a better job stocking up on a few things. We ran out of hot chocolate and almost out of bottled water (but could have just boiled some). Should have stocked up better with fresh veggies and fruit also.

    #2
    I would look into putting a ground loop in for the water tank

    it would probably be easiest to run the loop with a heat exchanger in the tank vs running the tank water through the ground loop.....but a few calculations and some buried black pipe and a circulation pump and you can keep that tank from freezing

    depending on your soil probably less than a day to dig the pit to bury the line with a decent backhoe

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by Smeone View Post
      I would look into putting a ground loop in for the water tank

      it would probably be easiest to run the loop with a heat exchanger in the tank vs running the tank water through the ground loop.....but a few calculations and some buried black pipe and a circulation pump and you can keep that tank from freezing

      depending on your soil probably less than a day to dig the pit to bury the line with a decent backhoe
      It's solid limestone. I figure I'd just drain the tank before any major freeze. It takes getting below 20 degrees to really freeze it. And one night below 20 thaws quick. If we here in Texas stay below 20 degrees for more than 2-3 weeks I have more to worry about anyway LOL

      If I drain and then really need water I could just start the well pump and fill it enough to get water. I just can't start it after the full tank freezes.

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        #4
        Primary lesson I learned has to do with a toilet that is against the north side exterior wall. The line coming in froze. When the power came back on, I got it thawed with a space heater. After that, I took a bread tie and slid it under the flapper. Toilet was able to then run just enough to keep from freezing again.


        Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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          #5
          We have a couple of things to up-grade..................

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by RiverRat1 View Post
            It's solid limestone. I figure I'd just drain the tank before any major freeze. It takes getting below 20 degrees to really freeze it. And one night below 20 thaws quick. If we here in Texas stay below 20 degrees for more than 2-3 weeks I have more to worry about anyway LOL

            If I drain and then really need water I could just start the well pump and fill it enough to get water. I just can't start it after the full tank freezes.
            I thought about a little "solar mass"(bricks/rocks)inside a clear plastic shed.
            Plastic would insulate (some) and the sun would warm the bricks (some) and have heat (some) during the night.Don't know how much good it would do.

            Might help to "sink" the tanks a bit(foot or so)

            Comment


              #7
              I insulated mine with vinyl backed metal building insulation.
              Then dropped a stock tank de icer in it.
              Worked great.

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by sasqy View Post
                I insulated mine with vinyl backed metal building insulation.
                Then dropped a stock tank de icer in it.
                Worked great.
                this is your cost effective fix if you have a little generator you can keep running.
                I am not sure it even needs to be insulated. If the sun is out the solar radiation will heat up the tank. We had the de-icer in the cow trough (100 gal galv tank) - it never froze

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                  #9
                  Solar stock tank heater in the water tank?

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                    #10
                    where i was it got into the single digits for a for a few days and we lost power for most of it. I'm already in the habit of draining all of the plumbing in the winter months when I'm not there so I have valve set up to purge the lines back to the holding tank. i may have lost a well pump i use to pressure the house water because it froze too fast after sunset on sunday when the power went off. I also would need a day with a rock saw to bury any lines.

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                      #11
                      A simple solution is a smaller tank-
                      I run a 500 gallon and it pulls from the trinity and it constantly pumps in the 60 degree water...no chance it will freeze unless your generator runs out

                      Just run a water hose to constantly run pump

                      Comment


                        #12
                        I think trying to prepare for every contingency is a fools errand. Cover some bases, like weeks worth of food and water, some sort of generator and fuel, and a heat source.

                        Then learn to be flexible

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