{"id":2545,"date":"2022-02-01T08:00:28","date_gmt":"2022-02-01T08:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/engineering\/ABE\/INPREPared\/?p=2545"},"modified":"2022-02-01T18:30:47","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T18:30:47","slug":"protect-your-plumbing-and-appliances-during-a-winter-power-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/engineering\/ABE\/INPREPared\/protect-your-plumbing-and-appliances-during-a-winter-power-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"Protect Your Plumbing and Appliances during a Winter Power Failure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Indiana winters always present the possibility of ice storms, heavy snow, and windy conditions that can cause power outages. Not only are power outages uncomfortable for people, our home’s plumbing and appliances can be severely damaged by freezing temperatures resulting from the loss of heating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a power failure or other heating\nemergency, protect exposed water pipes, drains, appliances, and other items to\nprevent damage from freezing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plumbing\nSystem<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Shut off the\nwater at the main valve or turn off the well pump if it is in the house.<\/li>
  2. Drain the\npressure tank.<\/li>
  3. Open all faucets\nuntil they drain completely. Some valves will open only when there is water\npressure. If so, remove the valve from the faucet.<\/li>
  4. Drain the entire\nsystem by disconnecting pipe unions or joints as close to the main valve as\npossible. You may use compressed air to blow water from pipes.<\/li>
  5. Insulate\nundrainable pipes around their main valves. Use blankets, housing insulation,\nor newspapers.<\/li>
  6. Drain toilet\nflush tanks and spray hoses.<\/li>
  7. Disconnect the\nwater softening unit so water can drain from the hard and soft water pipes and\nfrom the controls. Lay the softener tank on its side to drain as much water as\npossible. Also drain controls and tubing on brine (salt) tanks. A brine tank\nitself will not be harmed by freezing.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Sewage\nSystem<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Empty all drain\ntraps by carefully removing drain plugs or by disconnecting traps.<\/li>
    2. Blow out\ninaccessible traps with compressed air or add propylene-glycol base antifreeze\nin an amount equal to the water in the trap (I pint to I quart is sufficient,\ndepending on the size of the trap).<\/li>
    3. Check kitchen\nsinks, bathroom sinks, bathtub drains, toilets, washtubs, showers, floor\ndrains, and sump pumps.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Appliances<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      1. Disconnect the\nelectric power or shut off the fuel to all water-using units.<\/li>
      2. Shut off the\nwater supply and disconnect the hoses, if possible.<\/li>
      3. Drain all\nwater-using appliances.<\/li>
      4. Check the water\nheater, humidifiers, ice-making unit of the refrigerator, washing machine, and\ndishwasher.  Drain the pumps on the\nwashing machine and the dishwasher. Do not put antifreeze in these appliances.\nClose valves to the furnace, water heater, and dryer.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        Hot Water Heating System<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        If you think the heat will be off\nseveral hours or more during below freezing temperatures, you will need to keep\nexposed heating pipes from freezing. This can be done by circulating water\nthrough the pipes, or adding antifreeze to the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        1. Circulating\nwater.<\/em><\/strong> If electrical power is\navailable, keep the circulator pump going. Moving water does not freeze\nreadily. However, if the room temperature drops to below 40\u00b0F, you should\nprobably begin to drain the pipes.<\/li>
        2. Draining\npipes. <\/em><\/strong>Most hot water heating\nsystems are not easily drained. Pipes may have to be disconnected to drain low\npoints. Open the vents on radiators to release air so pipes can drain.<\/li>
        3. Adding\nantifreeze.<\/em><\/strong> Consult a heating\ncontractor about adding antifreeze to your system.  Use antifreeze in waste water or hot water\nheating systems only if it is not practical to maintain heat in the home,\ninsulate the vulnerable pipes, or keep water trickling through the system.  The common type of antifreeze used in\nautomobile cooling systems is Ethylene Glycol. This is NOT safe to use in any\npart of a home water system. The other type, Propylene Glycol, is used in the\nwaste water systems of recreational vehicles and is generally safe for waste\nwater systems, toilets, drain lines and hot water heating systems of buildings\nthat are left unheated during extended periods of sub-freezing temperatures.\nPropylene Glycol is not harmful if swallowed in small amounts but it is still\nnot recommended for use in water supply systems. (https:\/\/fyi.extension.wisc.edu\/house\/about-the-house\/plumbing\/)<\/em><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

          A printable PREPnote with this article can be downloaded by clicking here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          \"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          Indiana winters always present the possibility of ice storms, heavy snow, and windy conditions that can cause power outages. Not only are power outages uncomfortable for people, our home’s plumbing and appliances can be severely damaged by freezing temperatures resulting from the loss of heating. During a power failure or other heating emergency, protect exposed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,10],"tags":[30,29,38,62,42,61,60],"class_list":["post-2545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-news","category-news_blog","tag-indiana-prepared","tag-inprepared","tag-purdue-extension","tag-road-conditions","tag-rural-emergency-preparedness","tag-winter-driving","tag-winter-weather-preparedness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/engineering\/ABE\/INPREPared\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/engineering\/ABE\/INPREPared\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/engineering\/ABE\/INPREPared\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/engineering\/ABE\/INPREPared\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/engineering\/ABE\/INPREPared\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/engineering\/ABE\/INPREPared\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2547,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/engineering\/ABE\/INPREPared\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2545\/revisions\/2547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/engineering\/ABE\/INPREPared\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/engineering\/ABE\/INPREPared\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/engineering\/ABE\/INPREPared\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/engineering\/ABE\/INPREPared\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}