Freezing Pipes

 
miracleon06
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Post by miracleon06 » Tue. Jul. 15, 2008 6:12 pm

Hey everyone, my parents and I each just bought our first coal stoves. We both bought the Alaska Channing 3 models. My question to all of you pros is, if we place the stoves on the first floor of our homes, will we have problems with the pipes freezing in the basement?


 
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e.alleg
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Post by e.alleg » Tue. Jul. 15, 2008 6:49 pm

the short answer is yes, heat rises so no heat in the basement and the pipes could freeze.

 
miracleon06
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Post by miracleon06 » Tue. Jul. 15, 2008 8:12 pm

So I guess the next question is, what methods are people using to help prevent this?

 
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LsFarm
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Post by LsFarm » Tue. Jul. 15, 2008 8:37 pm

What type of heat do you currently have in your home?? if you have forced air, you could run the forced air fan on a timer or on a low speed to circulate some of the hot air from the upper levels into the basement. You could also probably keep a basement door open and some air will circulate..

If your basement is finished or insulated, and the pipes are not hidden or boxed in where circulating air cannot get to them, then the basement will likely stay around 50*. This depends on where you are located and what your climate is, how much of your basement is below grade or above grade, if it has lots of windows and doorwalls to walkout areas etc.. lots of variables.

Greg L

 
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CoalHeat
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Post by CoalHeat » Tue. Jul. 15, 2008 8:56 pm

I have heated this old place without using the central forced hot air oil-fired furnace. The coldest the cellar ever got was just above 50 degrees. As Greg said, it will vary from place to place, but you shouldn't have a problem. Just place a thermometer in the cellar, you could always fire up the oil burner. :(

 
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Post by Mark (PA) » Tue. Jul. 15, 2008 9:00 pm

I have hated my 2 story old underinsulated farm house with a corn burner (forced air) on the 1st floor for the past 2 years. I ran my oil boiler when temp was below 20 outside just as a safety measure. more for the pipes in the walls than in the basement. it never gets too cold in the basement I think you'll be OK though too> good luck!

 
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gambler
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Post by gambler » Tue. Jul. 15, 2008 9:04 pm

I leave my basement unheated every year for the past 5 years (I have a walk out basement) and the coldest that my basement has got was 48 degrees.


 
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Freddy
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Post by Freddy » Tue. Jul. 15, 2008 9:40 pm

Of course every house is different, and location could make a difference, are you in Virginia or Alaska? It's rare that pipes would freeze if the upstairs is heated and the basement not, but I have seen pipes in heated basements freeze. ALL pipes should be open to the basement air. Hidden ones are suspect to freeze. Any pipes near outside walls should be checked to make sure there are no outside air leaks near them.

Generally speaking, they will not freeze.

 
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e.alleg
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Post by e.alleg » Wed. Jul. 16, 2008 12:19 am

Let us know how your house is set up and we can provide a more accurate answer. My initial response is from my experience as an apartment manager in north-eastern Connecticut. Each apartment had gas heat and the basement was unheated and had doors on the street level on one side. If the outside temp dropped to below 10 degrees F. overnight the water pipes froze and I had to fix. I tried electric pipe tape and that helped some, insulating the walls and pipes helped some, but with no central heat down there it got below 32 degrees more often than I would have liked. Now, if you have a nicely insulated or completely underground basement with no drafts from windows, outside bulkheads, cracks in the walls, doors, etc.. the heat from the house and the natural insulation of the earth will keep it above freezing.

 
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WNY
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Post by WNY » Wed. Jul. 16, 2008 7:11 am

Our old house had the basement mostly below grade, and our Coal stove was on the first floor, the basement got pretty chilly (45-50), but our pipes never froze....all depends on your setup. I did insulate all the pipes with that foam insulation, maybe that helped. I did insulate all around the sill plates and filled all gaps with the expanding foam....

 
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Post by ken » Wed. Jul. 16, 2008 11:27 am

i cut a hole in the floor in the kitchen , the back of the house. put in a dual small window fan. also in the TV room where I sleep now. I run them on low to suck warm air into the rooms and then to the basement. I have a 16" fan hanging from the ceiling in the basement to move the air around. when it gets real cold out , I just kick the fans to medium. my water pipes are in the center of the basement. i'm more worried about the boiler pipes to the radiators that sit right buy the outside walls. be nice to just put a timer on the Taco pump to move the heat in the radiators from the first floor to the basement every once in awhile to the basement pipes. the holes are in the corners and you don't even see them. I want to mount the fans between the joists and put a grill in the floor. in the summer , I can flip the fans and pump cool air from the basement to act as cheap cool air. it's always cool in the basement , it's about 7' ceiling down there. unusal for an old house. hasn't been hot enough yet to try that one out.

 
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Post by coaledsweat » Wed. Jul. 16, 2008 5:30 pm

Put a thermometer near where the pipes you are worried about freezing and start checking the temperatures there when it gets to be 20* outside. When it gets down to about 35*-40* in that area, get yourself an electric heat tape. It will probably never happen.

 
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coalmeister
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Post by coalmeister » Wed. Jul. 16, 2008 6:26 pm

miracleon06 wrote:Hey everyone, my parents and I each just bought our first coal stoves. We both bought the Alaska Channing 3 models. My question to all of you pros is, if we place the stoves on the first floor of our homes, will we have problems with the pipes freezing in the basement?
I have heated my house with a pellet stove for 3 years on the first floor, with only a couple freezers and a water heater running in the basement, and it was fine even in the unheated crawl space section, and it gets below zero on occasions in our area.

 
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Uglysquirrel
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Post by Uglysquirrel » Wed. Jul. 16, 2008 8:10 pm

Re: Freezing hydronic heat pipes in outer walls, you can fill the boiler and a water/glycol solution with lubricant, they will never freeze. Any positive/negative experience in doing this ? My Mark II is in the basement and with this baby cranking on nut on a 0 deg night, I'm concerned about the north facing 2nd floor pipes that overhang the 1st floor by 1 ft. House is build 1985, hot water heat pipes are insulated with foam in the overhang, on the plus side heat in these pipes does conduct from warm areas to cold, so this helps, though still concerned. Any comments about using tne glycol antifreeze in the boiler system?

 
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coaledsweat
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Post by coaledsweat » Wed. Jul. 16, 2008 8:52 pm

Yeah, don't do it.


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