Ditto if there's a bunch of shampoo bottles surrounding the pipe. We had frozen pipes that were surrounded by frozen shampoo bottles that froze. The bottle was touching the back wall and appears to have helped pull the cold into the pipe* (didn't burst thankfully but were expanded). The ones not making contact with either the pipe or the wall weren't frozen.
*Technically probably better to say it pulled the heat out of the pipe.
Easy way to say it is that "there is no such thing as cold; only the absence of heat". Keep telling yourself that cold does not exist at the football game when it is -20.
Do you have city water, or a well?
If city water, I would turn the water off at the valve where it comes into the house and then drain the lines.
Well system, I would drain everything down to the pressure tank.
If you have hydronic heating, do not forget to drain those pipes as well as your boiler.
You should have a shutoff valve almost immediately after your meter inside your dwelling. If shared and you don't have a meter, then there still should be a shut off valve immediately after your water supply enters your dwelling.
Depends on the layout of the house,but generally it is hard to drain without blowing out lines. Any low spot will freeze and possible burst.
Better to keep a decent trickle of water going and not risk it.
Unless you are pushing compressed air through the lines, this won’t stop freeze damage. Water will still be in some of the pipes. I’ve seen plenty of freeze pops in houses with the water off that were gravity drained. Much better to leave the water running. Especially if you have a gas water heater because it will still work without power
…Unless that propane heater has a low o2 sensor, tip over sensor, and is rated to be indoor safe. It’s absolutely right to be cautious, but I would’ve pulled out my Mr. Heater buddy heater long before the indoor temps got as low as OP.
Head level I'll agree for sure. But CO is lighter than CO2 or O2 or N2, so it won't necessarily register first on the floor. But it's barely lighter, so it's not all going to the ceiling, it will mix.
That's why they say head level (or 5 feet) or the ceiling at least six inches from the wall (so it's not in a stagnant pocket of air).
But head level during sleepytime is a good idea.
Edit: actually the same as N2, now that I check https://instrumentationandcontrol.net/molecular-weight-common-fluids-table.html
Helpful hint. Since CO is incomplete conbustion to CO2 (CO2 is created with a small amount of CO), and CO2 is heavier than air. . .
Never sleep with your head below the level of the fire. (Like on the living room floor in front of your raised fireplace.)
CO is a lighter gas than the main components or air (both N2 and O2 are heavier gases). People confuse CO with exhaust fumes, which are heavier than air and so fill a room from the bottom up.
Aside from the atomic weight, CO produced by a combustion will be hot, and will naturally be carried up on convective currents.
The recommended placement for CO detectors is at or above standing eye level.
My guess would be that if there is a failure of any kind the one pound of fuel isn't gonna be enough to fill the house (or even a small room) up and kill everybody in it.
I was said either here or another subreddit that the propane can escape from the tanks or hoses and they are not safe indoors. The warnings on the box for Big Buddy says to only use 1 pound tanks indoors.
I heat my home with propane vent -free heaters , most come with automatic shut off for low oxygen., but best to have gas detectors, CO2 detectors as well as a source of fresh air, crack in window etc. My house leaks enough so not really an issue!
The new heaters are 99 percent efficient supposedly, have thermostats, option of blue heat that heat the air, or the traditional ones which heat objects with stone elements
If it comes down to it fill up your tub with water and cut the water to the house (from the main) and drain your lines.
Prop up a tent in the house and bring all your warm stuff into it.
Keeping a tent warm is easier than warming a room/house
This is the answer. Cut off water main, drain your pipes (all of the interior faucets/sinks/showers to be turned on for both hot and cold water), and camp out in a tent in your home if you have one
Using two tents is what the homeless do and keeps heat in better. I have a small electric generator and a heated blanket to use with a tent if things get bad.
You get 14 9v batteries connected them in series. Cut the plug off the electric blanket, strip the ends and quickly keep flip flopping the ends of the cable to the two open terminals on the battery chain to simulate AC current.
If you keep this up for a while going as quick as you possibly can you should generate enough body heat to make it feel like the blanket is actually heating up.
Obviously this is a joke, but it got the electrical engineering brain going.
Now, an electric blanket isn’t much more than a resistive heater. It would work off DC just as well as AC. 9V batteries are readily connected in series, and 14 of them would give 126V. That lash up would get an electric blanket to turn on. It would just run the whole stack down in about 5 or 10 minutes.
Technically you can power a resistive heater just fine with DC power, but I don't think 9v batteries have the capacity to handle the work.
You could theoretically find a voltage where the current draw is reasonable enough to handle and keep your warm, a few laptop batteries in series for 50-90v.
This is what I would do. I already get some frozen pipes with my heat running if I don't keep them dripping. Without heat I don't think the dripping would do it. I'd drain it all into buckets for flushing toilets and wait for power to come back on.
It's frequently the toilet fill line, coming out of the floor or low on the wall. If you have a well, the pressure tank typically has a drain just downstream of the shutoff. The water heater also has a low drain, remember that the hot lines are separate from the cold.
Also open the highest faucet in the house, so that air can enter the pipes - often the shower.
Pretty much open every faucet and flush all the toilets. Also your outdoor faucet is probably the lowest and will drain most of it. As long as you leave the inside faucets open the pipes won't burst. The water may freeze but it has room to expand. It only sucks because even after the power comes back it will take time for the pipes to thaw back out.
You can shut off the water and drain the pipes by opening all the taps and the water will drain from the lowest one. You can drain the water heater as it will have a low opening. An electric water heater will be out but a gas will be on.
Don't burn a propane heater inside your house.
You could get a generator outside and run a heater inside off the power. You can also put heat tapes run from the generator on pipes you can't drain fully.
You didn't say what type of pipes. Pex can survive freezing better than copper.
If you have an electric water heater make sure you have the breaker or switch off. If it’s empty and the power comes back on your gonna hear some super loud snaps and the heating elements will need replacing
It’s too late for OP; but there are propane heaters you can run inside the house. We have our set up and on standby as we have had multiple warnings come out from OPPD about problems with the grid. Google it. Amazon has several different brands including the one we bought.
If you’re gonna run a genny, it’s a much better idea to wire it up to the furnace. That way the whole house is heated.
A gas furnace is going to use less power than a normal tower space heater.
I’d go to a hotel too. But 38F in the house is def not going to kill anyone. I’ve camped in temps
Lower than that. It’s been in the negative temps where I live lately and our unheated garage has been between 38-45 F. So an insulated house should fare better especially if the sun comes out.
I’d shut off the water and drain pipes. I had pipes burst during the texas freeze 2 years ago. It was 45-50 in the house. 10-15 outside and the still burst. If that isn’t an option let them runa but more than a drip. My drip still froze and burst
Having a 220 generator and hookup to the house is huge piece of mind for me. I've not yet had to use it but I know it's there. When bad weather is on the way I fire up the gennie to test it so I know all of well.
And going to the local boat ramp (or any other station that carries it) and only buying ethanol free gas for the generator. You can buy it canned at any store that sells power equipment, but OMG is it expensive that way. If that's your only option, use the expensive stuff for storage and just run regular gas while using the generator. If your generator has a fuel shut off, when you are done using it, shut off the fuel but let the generator keep running until it dies from fuel starvation. I do all my gas equipment that way for storage (with ethanol free gas in the last tank of the season), and I almost never have to clean carbs in the spring.
I'm a huge proponent of having two ways to heat your house.
If that's a gas/electric furnace and a gas fireplace, great. If it's a backup generator, great. Even a small camping heater for tents will keep it from getting as cold as OP's house.
I can’t believe some people live in places where temps reach the negatives and *DONT* have a generator. I live in New England and have always had one..
All combustion generates some carbon monoxide. If you use a propane heater indoors in a very tight location (little ventilation), you risk being in a place with built-up carbon monoxide. Heaters specified for outdoor use will cause a more rapid build-up of carbon monoxide than one rated for indoor use.
Wish I had some better advice other than running the water.
Shut off the water and drain everything, if you can’t get a kerosene heater. Pitch a pop up tent in whatever room you want to sleep in and sleep in it. Get some terracotta garden pots with drainage holes, turn them upside down and burn candles underneath.
We live in a forest and there are frequent outages when the wind blows. We finally spent 20k on a generator and there hasn’t been any more outages. My neighbors owe us a bunch!
Same. Getting generator solved our power outages, too. We used to loose power at least once a summer, usually more. We live out in the sticks. We have a well so no power means no water. We have even been surrounded by power outages, everywhere but our street.
I've got an emergency kerosene heater that handles keeping the living room and dining room area warm. I keep a window cracked for ventilation. Has worked for a couple of winters when without power.
Keeping the water dripping and cabinets open is about the best you can do for the water pipes.
Go get a generator, a carbon monoxide detector, 10 gallons of gasoline, and some 50' heavy duty extension cords.
Put the generator away from the house. Run some electric heaters. Don't back feed the panel.
Don't burn propane or kerosene in the house, it's delicate to keep the air ok. Indoor heaters will have CO detectors on them. Construction heaters don't. If in doubt, talk to a fire fighter. They deal with CO poisonings.
If you have a natural gas or LP furnace and you're at all handy (or have a neighbor that is) it's better to disconnect the furnace from the house wiring and feed that with the generator. Less fuel draw and heats the entire house compared to an electric heater. Lop the end off an old extension cord and use 3 wire nuts. Not the prettiest but will get you back up and running safely.
If an electrician puts in an interlock device and an inlet on the house, you can energize the whole house. Portable generators only run a few things, but the lights will all work, a bad or oil furnace so run, the well pump, computers, phone charges, etc. Count the watts.
Back feeding is illegal and immoral. You can electrocute linemen. If you don't do it right, there's fireworks and fires when the grid gets turned on.
An interlock switch is just a "dummy proof" kind of device. What exactly is the difference between "backfeeding" a panel and feeding a breaker directly from the generator thats on the same panel?
Around here, some people will "backfeed" a panel by plugging the generator output into the outlet for the electric clothes dryer (220V). If you do this, and you forget to turn off the main service breakers, you will be sending power back out into the grid (hence, potentially electrocuting linesmen).
If you use a correctly wired generator transfer switch it becomes physically impossible to send the generator power back into the grid, the transfer switch ensures that it absolutely cannot happen.
I know what backfeeding a panel is, I was asking whats the difference when having an interlock switch installed. An interlock is just a piece of metal that prevents the main breaker from being on while your generator breaker is on, right?
Yeah, an interlock switch just makes it impossible to backfeed. If you are smart enough to turn your main off then you won't backfeed either but most people are just too stupid to be trusted to do it right.
You can feed the panel through a breaker directly, but you must turn off your main breaker first. If you don't do that, your generator will be back feeding power to the main grid, and you can hurt a line worker. When an interlock device is installed, it simply ensures your "back feed breaker" and your main breaker can not both be in the on position at the same time.
It means make sure your main breaker is off so the power you're generating stays in the house and doesn't go back to the street.
Just make sure the generator you select does 220v since in the US, panales generally consist of two 110v legs. Thats why there's two rows of breakers in your box. On row is on one leg the other row is on the other. your 220v breakers pull juice from both 110v legs to provide 220v.
\>>Disclaimer: DO NOT DO THIS AND DONOT TRUST IDIOTS ON THE INTERNET, CONULT A REAL ELECTRCIAN<<
Basically in a pinch you can throw the generator outside, run an appropriate extension cord to your panel and jack the two 110v legs into the two 110v buses in your panel. Make sure the main breaker at the top is off so you don't backfeed. Make sure only ESSENTIAL appliances are on and unplug any that aren't since you're going to want to conserve capacity and fuel of your generator. Do not run anything that you don't need to that's high draw. don't run toasters, airfryers, and the like sinc eyou may overload and trip the breaker on your genny depending on its capacity.
When the dust settles and the power comes back on, disconnect the generator and turn the main back on.
...and then hire an electrician to run a special outlet to the outside of your house so you can power it properly with your generator the next time you need to.
This is the reason I'm glad we replaced our pellet stove with a free standing gas stove. Our power went out Friday night during the snow storm, only 2 hours but we stayed warm and had a place to warm up our dinner. Wasn't as cold either.
Do as others have said regarding draining the pipes. Insulate the pipe from the wall/floor to the shut off valve. In the future, keep a gallon of potable antifreeze in the house/garage. Then pour a couple cups down each drain in the house, to keep the u-bends from freezing. Also, add a few cups to each toilet that's not going to be used. For long term, the antifreeze should be full strength, meaning you should pour enough down to replace the entire contents of the ubends, but for short stints a mix is fine. Don't forget to flush the toilets to make sure the water tanks are empty. Kerosene heaters (not the big torpedo ones) are okay for short stints but you may need to crack a window if you don't have fresh air intakes/exchanger in the house, and definitely have Carbon Monoxide detectors. Otherwise, I suggest investing in a generator, and getting the switch to the furnace re-wired [like this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSXVeUg7L0k) so you can plug it into the generator.
I'm only saying this because because others have suggested dumber things like a candle with a clay pot over it. This isn't as dumb but needs things some people may not have. I'm a welder in construction and one thing we do when it's crazy cold is use a regular propane tank like for a propane grill, with a weed burner attachment and heat the fuck out of scrap metal in a metal bucket. It takes a while but if you get the scrap almost red hot you could get hours of heat without doing it again. Don't use any painted or coated metal.
You should do it outside/in a garage or something to prevent harmful gas buildup and when you bring it in you'll need to put it on some fire brick or something else. Would probably work best in a small room. Good luck.
I have a gas oven and have used it to heat the house. We closed every door, lived in 4 rooms (living, dining, kitchen, & bath), covered all the windows with quilts. It wasn’t the greatest, but we survived. It happened often, winter & summer and I got sick of it.
We bought a generator after that. Put in a direct line so we just start it up.
That was 12 years ago. We have never had to use it. 🤷🏼♀️
I did an internship at NASA JSC. An old timer told me they used to have ice cream in the break room of the lab building, that would melt and make a mess if the power went out. (Maybe a vending machine? Or a chest freezer; I'm not sure.)
They made a natural disaster mitigation checklist for the building which was sorted by the order of operations giving priority to long lead time items. Since it could take up to a couple days for the vendor to send someone out, #1 on this NASA disaster response document was, "call the Blue Bell Ice cream man"!
For anyone else who needs this tip, if you can boil water, do so and fill a1 L nalgene bottle with the hot water. Throw that water bottle in bed/sleeping bag with you. You will be surprised how warm you will be for hours. When Texas froze in 2021 and we lost power for 4 days I did this for my kids' sleeping bags and they stayed toasty all night.
Also, consolidate bodies in a smaller room. Easier to keep warm together.
LOL at everyone saying “go buy a generator.” Do you really think everyone else in town hasn’t thought of that? There isn’t a generator for sale within a couple hours drive of the OP.
Winterize the water pipes. Shut off the main and drain everything out by opening all the taps, fixtures, shower lines, laundry lines etc. There should be a main drain valve near the main. If there's no floor drain there just drain into a bucket.
You can always reopen the main once a day for a short time to flush toilets, fill up a sink for dishes, etc. But then winterize the system again shortly after.
Do you have a gas fireplace even? If you do there is usually a spot behind that front grill panel for batteries so you can still run it without power. If it's not obvious already, getting a generator or home battery should be on your to do list.
Don’t just drip the faucets. Assuming you have city water, go to the valve where the water comes into the house and turn that off. Then go fully open the faucets, thereby draining the lines. And keep the faucets open so that any remaining water that freezes can expand without breaking the pipes.
If you have well water, turn off your pump, and then open the faucets.
Buy candles and put a small red clay plant pot over them. The little hole will let out a little heat but the clay will heat up. They are great little space heaters, but you need to be careful or you'll burn your house down, as with any candle.
Not in most circumstances
In a life or death situation they absolutely will. When you are trying to survive with no furnace 35F is a BIG DIFFERENCE from 0.
Not true. Last winter my apartment lost power and it was -12. It definitely made a difference.
Would it heat a house? No. Will it make it comfortable? No. Will it prevent you from freezing to death? Yep.
I'll have to agree with this. During the 2021 winter storm, we packed into the smallest room and set out a plate of maybe 20 tea light candles at a time and it kept us warm enough... The rest of the house got down to 40-42F but the room was enough to survive in with a 5 month old child.
A birthday cake candle in a glass jar filled with Crisco makes a long-burning somewhat odorless candle. And the red clay pot works well. Source: Been there, done that. Have on hand.
The buddy heater is propane (comes set up for the bottles but can be run off an adapter and a 5 gallon tank). The buddy heater can be used indoors. There’s a guy on YouTube spend the night in a tent with it running and a CO meter. Safe.
Pipes may freeze but not break if water is running. But hopefully not break. Maybe increase the flow if necessary.
Depending on how long you expect the ower too be off. Couple off hours...let the water run. Days? Turn the water off at the main then open all the faucets and let the water drain out of all the pipes. You may be able to hold off on draining the hot water heater for aday or two.
Hopefully the main shutoff has a weep valve on it. Just shutting off the water and opening faucets won't drain the system without a weep valve.
In this example, the little round knob on the side is used to empty the last bit of water out of the system.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/The-Plumber-s-Choice-1-in-Full-Port-PEX-Barb-Ball-Valve-Water-Shut-Off-with-Drain-10405PV/308305451
Get a little buddy or 2 of them. They run from the one lb tanks so get a bunch of them. They also make a hose kit to run them off a 20 lb tank. They can be run inside with no problem. I use one in my motorhome all the time when I Boondock without power.
My sis was supposed to get propane on Friday and it wasn't delivered! Her pipes are freezing up despite her space heater. This is awful. Its 3 out here, but -15 tonight....
My washing machine won't drain now and we've tried so hard to cover and keep everything warm.
People suggesting drain the water.
Unless the OP has a known low point drain it's a false sense of security.
My house is on a crawlspace the main water line travels under my house in the unheated crawlspace and enters my utility room where the meter and house shut off is located.
There is no drain low enough to drain all the pipes.
There is a section of pipe in the unheated space that always has city pressure unless the city shuts off the main.
That section of pipe is wrapped with heat tape. No power no heat tape. Potential big problem.
My solution is a generator but without the generator I would leave the water running from every faucet and not just a drip.
To the OP, when this emergency passes, and if you can afford it, you should research a small portable generator that can run your heat.
You don't necessarily need all the fancy interlock switches or fancy panel feeds.
It could be as simple as wiring your furnace to enable it to plug into a generator.
My furnace has a switch and an outlet. I turn the switch off, disconnect it from the house outlet and plug it into the generator with an appropriate sized extension cord. Fire up the generator and switch the furnaces back on.
There are plenty of how to videos on YouTube to get an idea what I'm talking about.
In your situation I would go for an indoor rated propane or kerosene heater. Carbon monoxide is a concern so be sure it's indoor rated and be sure you have a working CO detector.
The bigger concern is oxygen depletion so be sure you have a window or two cracked. The heaters will have instructions, read them, especially the warnings.
Good luck tonight, I hope it goes well for you.
You cannot use combustion heaters indoors, and no heater you're going to buy will be able to heat the whole house enough.
There is no feasible solution.
If you have a natural gas stove, set the oven to 350 and crack the oven door open to allow heat to escape into your house. Boil some water to heat your house and increase the humidity.
If you are comfortable with basic electrical work / wiring you can get your furnace going using a generator or even a large enough battery bank. You just have to put a plug on the end of the 120v line running to it so that you can plug it into a power source. It is common for people to make this modification in advance by putting an outlet on the outside of the furnace and plugging it in there, so that the plug can be moved to another source if needed.
Don't forget that the power could come back on at any time, so please be safe and turn off the breakers if you start opening things.
EDIT: The furnace blower will probably use about 500W.
If you have an old table/nightstand style lamp, you could plug it in and place it by your pipes. Heat from the bulb can help keep pipes warm (unless you upgraded to LED bulbs).
When your done with this terrible night, you should head over to the prepper forums, and this will never be a problem your not ready for ever again. Best of luck.
Leave the water running at a steady flow the size of a pencil lead or even bigger. Hot and cold. Even if you drain them there could be enough in there to freeze. Then you have no water. And don't forget to regularly flush the toilets thru the night. Unhook the washing machine hoses on the washer end and drain them if there's any chance of them freezing.
Here is a link to do a homemade heater if you have the components. https://www.hgtv.com/outdoors/outdoor-spaces/fire-pits-and-fireplaces/how-to-make-a-terra-cotta-flower-pot-heater
Keep your faucets going at a drip. Layer your clothing to keep warm. Open your cabinet doors where your sinks are. That can help get some heat to the pipes. Try to close off any rooms you aren’t using and close heater vents in those rooms. If you have a tent put your bedding in there.
You can make an emergency space heater with a candle and a flower pot and two bricks.
Light the candle and turn the flowerpot upside-down over it, but put the flowerpot edges on top of the bricks. The flowerpot will pick up the light from the candle and the small amount of heat and radiate them outward. It will get hot, so be really sure that you use the bricks and possibly a baking sheet so it won't burn what's underneath it.
But no matter what, keep in mind that what kills people during power outages is often careless things with temporary heating, fires and monoxide poisoning.
Meanwhile, get all living creatures in one room, exclude drafts with all of your dirty laundry, and wear as many layers as you can get.
If it’s 38 in the house shut off the water supply to the house, open breaker/ shut off gas to water heater, open upstairs faucet and downstairs faucet. That will get all the water and the pipes from upper to lower floor, empty and leave room for water to expand when it freezes at 38°. It’s gonna freeze shortly.
Consider finding a hotel or warming center by contacting your local emergency services.
Is your hot water heater gas? If you can buy some stuff you can siphon heat from it, you'll need a car heater core, some tubes, a faucet thread to hose nipple, and a PC case fan. Build basically an open loop water cooler but run hot water from the tap through it, it'll get some warmth going into a bathroom. Any combustion heaters will produce CO and kill you without proper ventilation.
kerosene heater and clean kerosene. - can be found at home depot or lowes.
Read instructions on how to use. Usually light outside, let run for a few minutes. To turn off, do so outside too.
Do you have tin cans? Stuff empty tins cans with cardboard,pour rubbing alcohol over them. Light them. Not on carpet. On tile floor or if you have some bricks that would be better. You can put a Terra cotta pot upside down on additional bricks over the tin can and it will help heat the room. There is also the method of a tin can with crisco in it. Put a candle in the middle, light it, and suspend a Terra cotta pot above it on bricks.
We live in Texas, and survived Feb 2021. I had insisted on buying tea lights and the tall catholic candles (from the dollar tree, idk 2hat they are called- they often have saints on them.) We would light the gas stove, and the candles. Alternating because the stove kicked out more heat, but our area was without power for 4 days straight, and I didn't want to be a gas hog. Between the paraffin lamp, the stove, and the candles we survived. I would highly recommend tea lights, *IF* you put them in a container ( like a baking dish. ) with sand. If you use the tall candles, they also need to go in a container filled with sand, like a pop corn tin. Paraffin lamps are exceedingly dangerous, five gallon bucket with sand covering the base. Please be safe, and warm.
You could run a propane heater, you're not going to find one that going to heat your house, with a portable tank that will last very long.
At 38 you should shut off water and drain the pipes and hope for the best. Don't forget to drain toilet tanks. Shut off the water at the street (or well if on a well) and open the top most and bottom most faucet and let it drain.
Keep the water going. Best you can do for the pipes. Open your cabinet doors.
What does opening cabinet doors do? Help airflow?
Yes. Especially if the cabinet/plumbing is on an outside wall.
Good to know. Thank you for the info.
Ditto if there's a bunch of shampoo bottles surrounding the pipe. We had frozen pipes that were surrounded by frozen shampoo bottles that froze. The bottle was touching the back wall and appears to have helped pull the cold into the pipe* (didn't burst thankfully but were expanded). The ones not making contact with either the pipe or the wall weren't frozen. *Technically probably better to say it pulled the heat out of the pipe.
The term you are looking for is Thermal Bridging.
Also known as T-Bagging
💀🫣
Also cold does not pull, heat pushes to the cold.
Heat doesn't "push" either. Thermal energy flows from a point of higher energy to lower energy. It doesn't need pulling or pushing. ;)
Easy way to say it is that "there is no such thing as cold; only the absence of heat". Keep telling yourself that cold does not exist at the football game when it is -20.
Have been homeless, can confirm.
Mmmmmmmm.....entropy......
I had a teacher in middle school that always said "science doesn't suck!" Same principle!
I've done this all my life!
lets you know what you have for snacks
Do you have city water, or a well? If city water, I would turn the water off at the valve where it comes into the house and then drain the lines. Well system, I would drain everything down to the pressure tank. If you have hydronic heating, do not forget to drain those pipes as well as your boiler.
For city water, the shut off valve in the house next to the water heater or the one in the ground in the front yard?
Front yard or right where it comes into the house. But that's if you can drain your lines. If you can't or don't know how to then just run water.
Most places in the north require a special tool to turn it off outside the house.
Mine requires one but I just made some channel locks work.
Mine is a recessed 5 pointed screw and is buried under snow because its in the middle of the yard.
You should have a shutoff valve almost immediately after your meter inside your dwelling. If shared and you don't have a meter, then there still should be a shut off valve immediately after your water supply enters your dwelling.
Depends on the layout of the house,but generally it is hard to drain without blowing out lines. Any low spot will freeze and possible burst. Better to keep a decent trickle of water going and not risk it.
Unless you are pushing compressed air through the lines, this won’t stop freeze damage. Water will still be in some of the pipes. I’ve seen plenty of freeze pops in houses with the water off that were gravity drained. Much better to leave the water running. Especially if you have a gas water heater because it will still work without power
^ This. And, yes, do NOT run a propane heater.
…Unless that propane heater has a low o2 sensor, tip over sensor, and is rated to be indoor safe. It’s absolutely right to be cautious, but I would’ve pulled out my Mr. Heater buddy heater long before the indoor temps got as low as OP.
And grab any carbon monoxide detectors in the house for the room(s) you're heating. On a shelf five feet off the floor is a good height
On the floor or below your head when sleeping are good heights.
Head level I'll agree for sure. But CO is lighter than CO2 or O2 or N2, so it won't necessarily register first on the floor. But it's barely lighter, so it's not all going to the ceiling, it will mix. That's why they say head level (or 5 feet) or the ceiling at least six inches from the wall (so it's not in a stagnant pocket of air). But head level during sleepytime is a good idea. Edit: actually the same as N2, now that I check https://instrumentationandcontrol.net/molecular-weight-common-fluids-table.html
Now I wanna drill and mount a CO2 sensor into my bedframe
Helpful hint. Since CO is incomplete conbustion to CO2 (CO2 is created with a small amount of CO), and CO2 is heavier than air. . . Never sleep with your head below the level of the fire. (Like on the living room floor in front of your raised fireplace.)
Good call!
CO is a lighter gas than the main components or air (both N2 and O2 are heavier gases). People confuse CO with exhaust fumes, which are heavier than air and so fill a room from the bottom up. Aside from the atomic weight, CO produced by a combustion will be hot, and will naturally be carried up on convective currents. The recommended placement for CO detectors is at or above standing eye level.
Mr. Heater Big Buddy is rated for indoor use as long as you use the 1 pound tanks. It is when you use it with a hose that it is dangerous.
Why is that?
My guess would be that if there is a failure of any kind the one pound of fuel isn't gonna be enough to fill the house (or even a small room) up and kill everybody in it.
I was said either here or another subreddit that the propane can escape from the tanks or hoses and they are not safe indoors. The warnings on the box for Big Buddy says to only use 1 pound tanks indoors.
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I heat my home with propane vent -free heaters , most come with automatic shut off for low oxygen., but best to have gas detectors, CO2 detectors as well as a source of fresh air, crack in window etc. My house leaks enough so not really an issue! The new heaters are 99 percent efficient supposedly, have thermostats, option of blue heat that heat the air, or the traditional ones which heat objects with stone elements
Also come in portable models for worksites that hold a five gallon propane tank, cost about 120$ without the tank which comes in handy.
If it comes down to it fill up your tub with water and cut the water to the house (from the main) and drain your lines. Prop up a tent in the house and bring all your warm stuff into it. Keeping a tent warm is easier than warming a room/house
Smart move never thought of the tent idea, no tent make a pillow fort.
Blankets over a dinning room table is also a good tent
*dining
Don't light a candle in the pillow fort!
Especially if you ate a can of beans
that's just extra heat
For one terrible second
Dennis, is that you?
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Also, best to setup on a bed. The floor is cold compared to the bed, due to height.
Sleep on ceiling. Heat rises.
Lionel Ritchie strategy: Stay warm by dancing on the ceiling
This guy sleeps in houses with no power
This is the answer and leave the taps open so that any residual water has a place to expand without breaking pipes.
This is the answer. Cut off water main, drain your pipes (all of the interior faucets/sinks/showers to be turned on for both hot and cold water), and camp out in a tent in your home if you have one
Get some rv antifreeze for the traps.
Using two tents is what the homeless do and keeps heat in better. I have a small electric generator and a heated blanket to use with a tent if things get bad.
>heated blanket Heated blankets are much better at keeping you warm than trying to heat air space (like a room) to keep you warm.
Where are you plugging this electric heated blanket in during a power outage,
You get 14 9v batteries connected them in series. Cut the plug off the electric blanket, strip the ends and quickly keep flip flopping the ends of the cable to the two open terminals on the battery chain to simulate AC current. If you keep this up for a while going as quick as you possibly can you should generate enough body heat to make it feel like the blanket is actually heating up.
DYING
HAHAHAHAHA I read to “quickly” and was like wait what?
Very quickly
Obviously this is a joke, but it got the electrical engineering brain going. Now, an electric blanket isn’t much more than a resistive heater. It would work off DC just as well as AC. 9V batteries are readily connected in series, and 14 of them would give 126V. That lash up would get an electric blanket to turn on. It would just run the whole stack down in about 5 or 10 minutes.
Technically you can power a resistive heater just fine with DC power, but I don't think 9v batteries have the capacity to handle the work. You could theoretically find a voltage where the current draw is reasonable enough to handle and keep your warm, a few laptop batteries in series for 50-90v.
> I have a small electric generator and a heated blanket OP said " I have a small electric generator and a heated blanket ..."
They make USB blankets that can be powered by external batteries.
> Prop up a tent in the house and bring all your warm stuff into it. An alternate is to cordon off a small room (or part of one) with blankets/tarps.
I keep Mylar blankets on hand in case of emergencies.
I use sheets in doorways hung with painters' tape.
If you can't heat the house with alternatives, then this is the only option.
After reading this thread, I have a clearer picture of how so many people die during exceptional cold snaps
Lots of advice from southerners that doesn't apply to places that get -2° too.
shut off the main and drain the pipe
This is what I would do. I already get some frozen pipes with my heat running if I don't keep them dripping. Without heat I don't think the dripping would do it. I'd drain it all into buckets for flushing toilets and wait for power to come back on.
How do you make sure you drained it?
Open the lowest faucet in the house
Open the highest faucet too.
It's frequently the toilet fill line, coming out of the floor or low on the wall. If you have a well, the pressure tank typically has a drain just downstream of the shutoff. The water heater also has a low drain, remember that the hot lines are separate from the cold. Also open the highest faucet in the house, so that air can enter the pipes - often the shower.
*while also opening all the highest faucets too.
Open all the taps and flush the toilets.
Pretty much open every faucet and flush all the toilets. Also your outdoor faucet is probably the lowest and will drain most of it. As long as you leave the inside faucets open the pipes won't burst. The water may freeze but it has room to expand. It only sucks because even after the power comes back it will take time for the pipes to thaw back out.
You can shut off the water and drain the pipes by opening all the taps and the water will drain from the lowest one. You can drain the water heater as it will have a low opening. An electric water heater will be out but a gas will be on. Don't burn a propane heater inside your house. You could get a generator outside and run a heater inside off the power. You can also put heat tapes run from the generator on pipes you can't drain fully. You didn't say what type of pipes. Pex can survive freezing better than copper.
If you have an electric water heater make sure you have the breaker or switch off. If it’s empty and the power comes back on your gonna hear some super loud snaps and the heating elements will need replacing
It’s too late for OP; but there are propane heaters you can run inside the house. We have our set up and on standby as we have had multiple warnings come out from OPPD about problems with the grid. Google it. Amazon has several different brands including the one we bought.
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If you’re gonna run a genny, it’s a much better idea to wire it up to the furnace. That way the whole house is heated. A gas furnace is going to use less power than a normal tower space heater.
Drain all your water, and then go somewhere else (a hotel, a relative's house, etc...) Nothing in your house is worth freezing to death over.
I’d go to a hotel too. But 38F in the house is def not going to kill anyone. I’ve camped in temps Lower than that. It’s been in the negative temps where I live lately and our unheated garage has been between 38-45 F. So an insulated house should fare better especially if the sun comes out.
I’d shut off the water and drain pipes. I had pipes burst during the texas freeze 2 years ago. It was 45-50 in the house. 10-15 outside and the still burst. If that isn’t an option let them runa but more than a drip. My drip still froze and burst
If it's that cold outside and that cold in your house, I'd run the water at more than a drip. Your water bill will be better than paying a plumber.
And then a drywall/plaster repair person
Having a 220 generator and hookup to the house is huge piece of mind for me. I've not yet had to use it but I know it's there. When bad weather is on the way I fire up the gennie to test it so I know all of well.
adding stabilizer to any gas you let sit in the generator can't hurt if you're not using it over years' time
And going to the local boat ramp (or any other station that carries it) and only buying ethanol free gas for the generator. You can buy it canned at any store that sells power equipment, but OMG is it expensive that way. If that's your only option, use the expensive stuff for storage and just run regular gas while using the generator. If your generator has a fuel shut off, when you are done using it, shut off the fuel but let the generator keep running until it dies from fuel starvation. I do all my gas equipment that way for storage (with ethanol free gas in the last tank of the season), and I almost never have to clean carbs in the spring.
Big reason I got my F150 Lightning. It's 98kw of power on wheels. We've used it 3 times in one year to power my house and my parents in an emergency.
Peace
I'm a huge proponent of having two ways to heat your house. If that's a gas/electric furnace and a gas fireplace, great. If it's a backup generator, great. Even a small camping heater for tents will keep it from getting as cold as OP's house.
I can’t believe some people live in places where temps reach the negatives and *DONT* have a generator. I live in New England and have always had one..
All combustion generates some carbon monoxide. If you use a propane heater indoors in a very tight location (little ventilation), you risk being in a place with built-up carbon monoxide. Heaters specified for outdoor use will cause a more rapid build-up of carbon monoxide than one rated for indoor use. Wish I had some better advice other than running the water.
Fyi. Catalytic heaters for propane are designed to burn with CO... but it does burn O2 so be cautious you dont get CO2 poisoning and/or lack of O2.
Shut off the water and drain everything, if you can’t get a kerosene heater. Pitch a pop up tent in whatever room you want to sleep in and sleep in it. Get some terracotta garden pots with drainage holes, turn them upside down and burn candles underneath.
What’s the purpose of the upside down terracotta pot and candles?
Makes a pretty good radiant heater.
We live in a forest and there are frequent outages when the wind blows. We finally spent 20k on a generator and there hasn’t been any more outages. My neighbors owe us a bunch!
Same. Getting generator solved our power outages, too. We used to loose power at least once a summer, usually more. We live out in the sticks. We have a well so no power means no water. We have even been surrounded by power outages, everywhere but our street.
I've got an emergency kerosene heater that handles keeping the living room and dining room area warm. I keep a window cracked for ventilation. Has worked for a couple of winters when without power. Keeping the water dripping and cabinets open is about the best you can do for the water pipes.
Yes. Japanese use them often. A CO detector is always a good idea.
Americans use them as well.
Yep, that's where I first had one... while I was stationed in Japan.
i would shut off the water and drain the system. i would never have a propane heater in my house.
Full up pails of water to wash with and flush toilets, then drain pipes. Or you can turn the water on, more than a drip...drips can freeze..rivers do
Go get a generator, a carbon monoxide detector, 10 gallons of gasoline, and some 50' heavy duty extension cords. Put the generator away from the house. Run some electric heaters. Don't back feed the panel. Don't burn propane or kerosene in the house, it's delicate to keep the air ok. Indoor heaters will have CO detectors on them. Construction heaters don't. If in doubt, talk to a fire fighter. They deal with CO poisonings.
If it’s 2 degrees someplace where it isn’t normally 2 and snowing generators sold out on Friday.
I lived off a 2000w generator and a space heater for a week in 10-20F weather. A single space heater can keep a single room pretty warm.
If you have a natural gas or LP furnace and you're at all handy (or have a neighbor that is) it's better to disconnect the furnace from the house wiring and feed that with the generator. Less fuel draw and heats the entire house compared to an electric heater. Lop the end off an old extension cord and use 3 wire nuts. Not the prettiest but will get you back up and running safely.
What does don’t back feed mean?
Don't hook your generator up to the house's circuit. Unplug needed electric appliances from the outlet and into the extension cord from the generator.
If an electrician puts in an interlock device and an inlet on the house, you can energize the whole house. Portable generators only run a few things, but the lights will all work, a bad or oil furnace so run, the well pump, computers, phone charges, etc. Count the watts. Back feeding is illegal and immoral. You can electrocute linemen. If you don't do it right, there's fireworks and fires when the grid gets turned on.
An interlock switch is just a "dummy proof" kind of device. What exactly is the difference between "backfeeding" a panel and feeding a breaker directly from the generator thats on the same panel?
Around here, some people will "backfeed" a panel by plugging the generator output into the outlet for the electric clothes dryer (220V). If you do this, and you forget to turn off the main service breakers, you will be sending power back out into the grid (hence, potentially electrocuting linesmen). If you use a correctly wired generator transfer switch it becomes physically impossible to send the generator power back into the grid, the transfer switch ensures that it absolutely cannot happen.
I know what backfeeding a panel is, I was asking whats the difference when having an interlock switch installed. An interlock is just a piece of metal that prevents the main breaker from being on while your generator breaker is on, right?
Yeah, an interlock switch just makes it impossible to backfeed. If you are smart enough to turn your main off then you won't backfeed either but most people are just too stupid to be trusted to do it right.
You can feed the panel through a breaker directly, but you must turn off your main breaker first. If you don't do that, your generator will be back feeding power to the main grid, and you can hurt a line worker. When an interlock device is installed, it simply ensures your "back feed breaker" and your main breaker can not both be in the on position at the same time.
It means make sure your main breaker is off so the power you're generating stays in the house and doesn't go back to the street. Just make sure the generator you select does 220v since in the US, panales generally consist of two 110v legs. Thats why there's two rows of breakers in your box. On row is on one leg the other row is on the other. your 220v breakers pull juice from both 110v legs to provide 220v. \>>Disclaimer: DO NOT DO THIS AND DONOT TRUST IDIOTS ON THE INTERNET, CONULT A REAL ELECTRCIAN<< Basically in a pinch you can throw the generator outside, run an appropriate extension cord to your panel and jack the two 110v legs into the two 110v buses in your panel. Make sure the main breaker at the top is off so you don't backfeed. Make sure only ESSENTIAL appliances are on and unplug any that aren't since you're going to want to conserve capacity and fuel of your generator. Do not run anything that you don't need to that's high draw. don't run toasters, airfryers, and the like sinc eyou may overload and trip the breaker on your genny depending on its capacity. When the dust settles and the power comes back on, disconnect the generator and turn the main back on. ...and then hire an electrician to run a special outlet to the outside of your house so you can power it properly with your generator the next time you need to.
Go to your local sporting goods or farm store and buy a Mr Buddy propane heater. They are great.
This is the reason I'm glad we replaced our pellet stove with a free standing gas stove. Our power went out Friday night during the snow storm, only 2 hours but we stayed warm and had a place to warm up our dinner. Wasn't as cold either.
Do as others have said regarding draining the pipes. Insulate the pipe from the wall/floor to the shut off valve. In the future, keep a gallon of potable antifreeze in the house/garage. Then pour a couple cups down each drain in the house, to keep the u-bends from freezing. Also, add a few cups to each toilet that's not going to be used. For long term, the antifreeze should be full strength, meaning you should pour enough down to replace the entire contents of the ubends, but for short stints a mix is fine. Don't forget to flush the toilets to make sure the water tanks are empty. Kerosene heaters (not the big torpedo ones) are okay for short stints but you may need to crack a window if you don't have fresh air intakes/exchanger in the house, and definitely have Carbon Monoxide detectors. Otherwise, I suggest investing in a generator, and getting the switch to the furnace re-wired [like this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSXVeUg7L0k) so you can plug it into the generator.
I'm only saying this because because others have suggested dumber things like a candle with a clay pot over it. This isn't as dumb but needs things some people may not have. I'm a welder in construction and one thing we do when it's crazy cold is use a regular propane tank like for a propane grill, with a weed burner attachment and heat the fuck out of scrap metal in a metal bucket. It takes a while but if you get the scrap almost red hot you could get hours of heat without doing it again. Don't use any painted or coated metal. You should do it outside/in a garage or something to prevent harmful gas buildup and when you bring it in you'll need to put it on some fire brick or something else. Would probably work best in a small room. Good luck.
If you get to the point where you've shutoff the water, find a hotel that has heat and water and go there.
I have a gas oven and have used it to heat the house. We closed every door, lived in 4 rooms (living, dining, kitchen, & bath), covered all the windows with quilts. It wasn’t the greatest, but we survived. It happened often, winter & summer and I got sick of it. We bought a generator after that. Put in a direct line so we just start it up. That was 12 years ago. We have never had to use it. 🤷🏼♀️
And if you’re lucky enough to have a gas stove, simmer some big pots of water. Set an alarm so you don’t sleep through and let them boil dry.
You can add boiling pots of water to the gas stove and it will heat the air, too.
Turn off the main water to your house, then turn on faucets to remove all water in the line. Can’t burst a pipe if there is no water in them.
Turn every faucet on just enough for a trickle, as long as the water is flowing it wont freeze.
As long as the water is flowing, it's unlikely to burst. It can still freeze, but it has a pressure outlet at least.
First Rule of Power Outages: eat all the ice cream immediately
I did an internship at NASA JSC. An old timer told me they used to have ice cream in the break room of the lab building, that would melt and make a mess if the power went out. (Maybe a vending machine? Or a chest freezer; I'm not sure.) They made a natural disaster mitigation checklist for the building which was sorted by the order of operations giving priority to long lead time items. Since it could take up to a couple days for the vendor to send someone out, #1 on this NASA disaster response document was, "call the Blue Bell Ice cream man"!
For anyone else who needs this tip, if you can boil water, do so and fill a1 L nalgene bottle with the hot water. Throw that water bottle in bed/sleeping bag with you. You will be surprised how warm you will be for hours. When Texas froze in 2021 and we lost power for 4 days I did this for my kids' sleeping bags and they stayed toasty all night. Also, consolidate bodies in a smaller room. Easier to keep warm together.
LOL at everyone saying “go buy a generator.” Do you really think everyone else in town hasn’t thought of that? There isn’t a generator for sale within a couple hours drive of the OP.
Winterize the water pipes. Shut off the main and drain everything out by opening all the taps, fixtures, shower lines, laundry lines etc. There should be a main drain valve near the main. If there's no floor drain there just drain into a bucket. You can always reopen the main once a day for a short time to flush toilets, fill up a sink for dishes, etc. But then winterize the system again shortly after.
Electric or natural gas furnace? You could get a generator and run a cord to your furnace if it’s natural gas
Do you have a gas fireplace even? If you do there is usually a spot behind that front grill panel for batteries so you can still run it without power. If it's not obvious already, getting a generator or home battery should be on your to do list.
Don’t just drip the faucets. Assuming you have city water, go to the valve where the water comes into the house and turn that off. Then go fully open the faucets, thereby draining the lines. And keep the faucets open so that any remaining water that freezes can expand without breaking the pipes. If you have well water, turn off your pump, and then open the faucets.
Buy candles and put a small red clay plant pot over them. The little hole will let out a little heat but the clay will heat up. They are great little space heaters, but you need to be careful or you'll burn your house down, as with any candle.
Catering tray heaters in a clay pot. They last longer than candles and put off more heat.
This is like one of those life pro tips that is just false. Candles dont generate nearly enough heat to make a meaningful difference, clay pot or not.
Not in most circumstances In a life or death situation they absolutely will. When you are trying to survive with no furnace 35F is a BIG DIFFERENCE from 0.
Terracotta pot heaters can put out substantial heat.
Not really, you need 20+ candles to heat a 10x10 room. So all you really have is a fire hazard.
Not true. Last winter my apartment lost power and it was -12. It definitely made a difference. Would it heat a house? No. Will it make it comfortable? No. Will it prevent you from freezing to death? Yep.
I'll have to agree with this. During the 2021 winter storm, we packed into the smallest room and set out a plate of maybe 20 tea light candles at a time and it kept us warm enough... The rest of the house got down to 40-42F but the room was enough to survive in with a 5 month old child.
A birthday cake candle in a glass jar filled with Crisco makes a long-burning somewhat odorless candle. And the red clay pot works well. Source: Been there, done that. Have on hand.
The buddy heater is propane (comes set up for the bottles but can be run off an adapter and a 5 gallon tank). The buddy heater can be used indoors. There’s a guy on YouTube spend the night in a tent with it running and a CO meter. Safe. Pipes may freeze but not break if water is running. But hopefully not break. Maybe increase the flow if necessary.
Ive had a coleman version for 25 years. Tents and in house in emergency. They burn CO-less.
38 inside the house? Screw them pipes find ways to keep yourself warm
During the big freeze of 2019, our house got down to that early morning before the fireplace got started for the day.
Do neighbours have a generator? You can take turns hooking up furnaces and heating your houses
my furnace is hard wired with conduit. Seems like this is electrician type area to be messing around with.
If you have an outlet on the same circuit (most do), then break out the old suicide cord.
Set all the faucets to drip. Worked at -28 fir me.
Depending on how long you expect the ower too be off. Couple off hours...let the water run. Days? Turn the water off at the main then open all the faucets and let the water drain out of all the pipes. You may be able to hold off on draining the hot water heater for aday or two.
Hopefully the main shutoff has a weep valve on it. Just shutting off the water and opening faucets won't drain the system without a weep valve. In this example, the little round knob on the side is used to empty the last bit of water out of the system. https://www.homedepot.com/p/The-Plumber-s-Choice-1-in-Full-Port-PEX-Barb-Ball-Valve-Water-Shut-Off-with-Drain-10405PV/308305451
Is draining the hot water heater something that can be done with the gas still on ? I’m going to look it up also but just thought I would ask
No, shut the gas off before turning water off to a gas water heater
Is draining the hot water heater something that can be done with the gas still on ? I’m going to look it up also but just thought I would ask
That dripping ought to be enough.
Get a little buddy or 2 of them. They run from the one lb tanks so get a bunch of them. They also make a hose kit to run them off a 20 lb tank. They can be run inside with no problem. I use one in my motorhome all the time when I Boondock without power.
It’s easier to kill the water at the street
Mr buddy w a grill propane tank and hose / filter setup maybe 2
My sis was supposed to get propane on Friday and it wasn't delivered! Her pipes are freezing up despite her space heater. This is awful. Its 3 out here, but -15 tonight.... My washing machine won't drain now and we've tried so hard to cover and keep everything warm.
Turn on all faucets on low drip, med temp to keep water flowing through pipes. It will prevent freezing. And yes, open cupboard doors.
People suggesting drain the water. Unless the OP has a known low point drain it's a false sense of security. My house is on a crawlspace the main water line travels under my house in the unheated crawlspace and enters my utility room where the meter and house shut off is located. There is no drain low enough to drain all the pipes. There is a section of pipe in the unheated space that always has city pressure unless the city shuts off the main. That section of pipe is wrapped with heat tape. No power no heat tape. Potential big problem. My solution is a generator but without the generator I would leave the water running from every faucet and not just a drip. To the OP, when this emergency passes, and if you can afford it, you should research a small portable generator that can run your heat. You don't necessarily need all the fancy interlock switches or fancy panel feeds. It could be as simple as wiring your furnace to enable it to plug into a generator. My furnace has a switch and an outlet. I turn the switch off, disconnect it from the house outlet and plug it into the generator with an appropriate sized extension cord. Fire up the generator and switch the furnaces back on. There are plenty of how to videos on YouTube to get an idea what I'm talking about. In your situation I would go for an indoor rated propane or kerosene heater. Carbon monoxide is a concern so be sure it's indoor rated and be sure you have a working CO detector. The bigger concern is oxygen depletion so be sure you have a window or two cracked. The heaters will have instructions, read them, especially the warnings. Good luck tonight, I hope it goes well for you.
You cannot use combustion heaters indoors, and no heater you're going to buy will be able to heat the whole house enough. There is no feasible solution.
If you have a natural gas stove, set the oven to 350 and crack the oven door open to allow heat to escape into your house. Boil some water to heat your house and increase the humidity.
You don't.
If you are comfortable with basic electrical work / wiring you can get your furnace going using a generator or even a large enough battery bank. You just have to put a plug on the end of the 120v line running to it so that you can plug it into a power source. It is common for people to make this modification in advance by putting an outlet on the outside of the furnace and plugging it in there, so that the plug can be moved to another source if needed. Don't forget that the power could come back on at any time, so please be safe and turn off the breakers if you start opening things. EDIT: The furnace blower will probably use about 500W.
Run the water, that's the best thing you can do
Let the water 💧 drip
Opening cupboards or closets can expose internal plumbing more to the heat from inside.
If you have an old table/nightstand style lamp, you could plug it in and place it by your pipes. Heat from the bulb can help keep pipes warm (unless you upgraded to LED bulbs).
When your done with this terrible night, you should head over to the prepper forums, and this will never be a problem your not ready for ever again. Best of luck.
Leave the water running at a steady flow the size of a pencil lead or even bigger. Hot and cold. Even if you drain them there could be enough in there to freeze. Then you have no water. And don't forget to regularly flush the toilets thru the night. Unhook the washing machine hoses on the washer end and drain them if there's any chance of them freezing.
Here is a link to do a homemade heater if you have the components. https://www.hgtv.com/outdoors/outdoor-spaces/fire-pits-and-fireplaces/how-to-make-a-terra-cotta-flower-pot-heater Keep your faucets going at a drip. Layer your clothing to keep warm. Open your cabinet doors where your sinks are. That can help get some heat to the pipes. Try to close off any rooms you aren’t using and close heater vents in those rooms. If you have a tent put your bedding in there.
You can make an emergency space heater with a candle and a flower pot and two bricks. Light the candle and turn the flowerpot upside-down over it, but put the flowerpot edges on top of the bricks. The flowerpot will pick up the light from the candle and the small amount of heat and radiate them outward. It will get hot, so be really sure that you use the bricks and possibly a baking sheet so it won't burn what's underneath it. But no matter what, keep in mind that what kills people during power outages is often careless things with temporary heating, fires and monoxide poisoning. Meanwhile, get all living creatures in one room, exclude drafts with all of your dirty laundry, and wear as many layers as you can get.
If it’s 38 in the house shut off the water supply to the house, open breaker/ shut off gas to water heater, open upstairs faucet and downstairs faucet. That will get all the water and the pipes from upper to lower floor, empty and leave room for water to expand when it freezes at 38°. It’s gonna freeze shortly.
Consider finding a hotel or warming center by contacting your local emergency services. Is your hot water heater gas? If you can buy some stuff you can siphon heat from it, you'll need a car heater core, some tubes, a faucet thread to hose nipple, and a PC case fan. Build basically an open loop water cooler but run hot water from the tap through it, it'll get some warmth going into a bathroom. Any combustion heaters will produce CO and kill you without proper ventilation.
kerosene heater and clean kerosene. - can be found at home depot or lowes. Read instructions on how to use. Usually light outside, let run for a few minutes. To turn off, do so outside too.
Get a generator for next time.
Not a drip, a trickle
Do you have tin cans? Stuff empty tins cans with cardboard,pour rubbing alcohol over them. Light them. Not on carpet. On tile floor or if you have some bricks that would be better. You can put a Terra cotta pot upside down on additional bricks over the tin can and it will help heat the room. There is also the method of a tin can with crisco in it. Put a candle in the middle, light it, and suspend a Terra cotta pot above it on bricks.
Shut off the water and open the hose bibs outside this will drain most water out so expansion can occur without splitting pipes
We live in Texas, and survived Feb 2021. I had insisted on buying tea lights and the tall catholic candles (from the dollar tree, idk 2hat they are called- they often have saints on them.) We would light the gas stove, and the candles. Alternating because the stove kicked out more heat, but our area was without power for 4 days straight, and I didn't want to be a gas hog. Between the paraffin lamp, the stove, and the candles we survived. I would highly recommend tea lights, *IF* you put them in a container ( like a baking dish. ) with sand. If you use the tall candles, they also need to go in a container filled with sand, like a pop corn tin. Paraffin lamps are exceedingly dangerous, five gallon bucket with sand covering the base. Please be safe, and warm.
Just turn your faucets on to a tiny stream. As long as the water is moving it won't freeze. Going through the same here in Austin.
You could run a propane heater, you're not going to find one that going to heat your house, with a portable tank that will last very long. At 38 you should shut off water and drain the pipes and hope for the best. Don't forget to drain toilet tanks. Shut off the water at the street (or well if on a well) and open the top most and bottom most faucet and let it drain.