How much heat to keep pipes from freezing

Metspitzer · 2011-01-09T19:18:55+00:00

Here in winter, most days it at least gets above freezing.(Alabama/Georgia) The nights are supposed to be down in the low 20sthis week. In my sister's house, the water heater is in a utility roomwith no heat. The hot water pipe is in an outside wall so her hotwater freezes during these cold times. I have suggested she put a100W bulb in the overhead light and leave it on to keep the pipes fromfreezing. This has helped, but it still freezes if the temp staysbelow freezing for more than a day. She only needs enough heat in the small x small room to keepthe pipe from freezing. A 100W lamp is not enough and a room heateris really too much. Can someone suggest something in between?

Jan 09, 2011 26 Replies

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JoeSpareBedroom 15 years ago

Only Mormons. The rest of us are OK.

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LSMFT 15 years ago

Get a drop cord and put the bulb UNDER the pipe; heat rises.

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Metspitzer 15 years ago

Good suggestions all Thanks everyone

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mbeyer 15 years ago

Buy one of those little ceramic electric heaters. Walmart, hardware store, building center, etc.. They're about $30 and very safe to use. They draw lower wattage than the bigger electric heaters. Blow it toward the wall where the pipes are. (of course leave a few feet in between - read the directions to know how far to space it from walls). Heat tape is costly too, but it may be a little cheaper, but this heater wont need anything installed. Just plug it in.

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Jeff Thies 15 years ago

How do you figure that? Almost all heaters draw ~1500W on high, and some portion thereof on medium and low.

Not that I'm adverse to ceramic, but they don't draw less power.

Jeff

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Caesar Romano 15 years ago

On Sun, 09 Jan 2011 18:40:32 -0500, Metspitzer wrote Re Re: How much heat to keep pipes from freezing:

Be aware however that it is not unusual for the thermostat on heat tape to fail and not turn on the tape heat when it is needed. I just got finished fixing two failed heat tapes down at the barn here in northwest Alabama.

It's looking like the 2010-2011 winter will be the coldest we have had in 30 years. We just got 8" of snow last night. That's the second snow in the past month.

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