New homeowner from Texas & first winter. I've never seen temps like what's forecasted. What do I need to know? (septic & well)

Submitted by MysteryOil t3_10qb01b in newhampshire

Things I've done which I'm aware of and have control over:

Food 
5gal emergency water (fill the bath tub just in case??)
Firewood 
Just over 1/4 tank of heating oil in the tank with a truck coming Monday
Car battery on a trickle charger 
Flashlights and chargers and batteries accounted for and ready

I'm sure there are things I'm just unaware of. I'm just 1 person so not much energy or general footprint, but I've got way too much anxiety and am hoping someone can assist with knowledge or even just making fun of me because everything will be probably be fine.

My well pump is inside in the basement, not in the well itself. I don't have any exposed pipes outside. Baseboard heating works fine @ forced hot water, but I'll intend to just use firewood as much as possible like I've been doing. Not sure what considerations (if any) should be given to the detached garage. All freeze-prone things were moved to the basement before winter.

What am I missing? (Thank you very very very much in advance.)

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srfyrk418 t1_j6oxaae wrote

You need to relax. It’s one day then it’ll be 40 again. This is nothing.

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DeerFlyHater t1_j6p200q wrote

I would normally say the same thing, but the OP is from Texas.

The entire state of Texas became the world's laughing stock a couple years ago when it got a bit below freezing. Everything shut down, no kidding bread lines in the streets, no power, no heat, broken pipes everywhere, etc. It was comically pathetic given the TX ego.

OP is trying to avoid a repeat. Also, since this is OP's first winter in his new house, he doesn't know what winter quirks it has. My quirky rental house had the dishwasher freeze last year at about -12.

but I do agree, this is nothing. Here by Squam Lake the coldest it is supposed to get is -18 and that is only for a couple days. No unusual preps needed. Planning some outdoors work on Saturday.

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MysteryOil OP t1_j6p31hc wrote

Exactly. Thank you. I have plenty of painfully justifiable PTSD from Texas re: flooding (from any heavy rain), hurricanes, and colder-than-usual weather. So I'm generally just expecting frozen zombies and polar bears to attack me on Friday night, and no one will hear my screams. And yes. Big(gest) anxiety is absolutely around not knowing how the house works in these temps, and whether or not it will explode or-- whatever the opposite of exploding is.

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GFanFan t1_j6pjnsm wrote

I'm a former New Englander and current Texan so I understand your anxiety. The Freeze™ was legitimately scary but what pissed me off the most was how many blizzards, ice storms, and sub-zero temps I lived through without so much as a second thought in New England. It goes to show you the value of proper infrastructure.

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dilznoofus t1_j6pge11 wrote

yeah, its just a blink, not even thinking about it. these were common wintertime temps for us growing up. if it was staying for weeks/months then you need to be concerned, but as its being followed by practically springtime temps, no biggie.

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Sirhc978 t1_j6oxhct wrote

>fill the bath tub just in case??

Only if you are on well water and the power goes out, which I don't think it will.

>Just over 1/4 tank of heating oil in the tank

That'll last the weekend.

>Car battery on a trickle charger

I've never had an issue starting my car when it is that cold. So long as your battery isn't like 7 years old.

>Flashlights and chargers and batteries accounted for and ready

As far as I know we are just getting cold, not a "storm". Your power should stay on.

​

Honestly anything down to -5F is kind of business as usual. If you are super paranoid about your pipes freezing, just turn your taps on a little bit before you go to bed to keep the water moving, but that is probably unnecessary this weekend. It is one day of slightly colder than normal for this time of year.

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mrhuggiebear t1_j6p0kn7 wrote

Idk I've lost power more than 10 hours 5 times since xmas this year.

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Sirhc978 t1_j6p19v7 wrote

We have had the power flicker a bunch, but it hasn't gone out since the summer.

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Azr431 t1_j6pi0hx wrote

Yikes, what area are you in?

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BionicGimpster t1_j6p1vhz wrote

Your well water is well below the frost line and will not freeze - nothing to worry about. Septic - no concerns at all. Other concerns will depends upon how well your home is insulated, as some homes see water pipes freeze in temps like well see for the next few days.

You have been using wood heat is to be aware of cold areas in your home. We have been using wood all winter, but will be turning on the heat for a few days. We don't typically heat our upstairs unless we have visitors, and it can get very cold up there and don't want bathroom pipes to freeze.

Pay attention to how cold it can get under your kitchen sink - a pretty common spot for frozen pipes as the kitchen sink usually sits on an exterior wall and under a window. Many people in older homes will open up the cabinets under their sinks to let warm air circulate. I know people in really old homes that will leave their sinks dripping, as moving water takes longer to freeze.

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MysteryOil OP t1_j6p3vh4 wrote

Thank you so much. I'll absolutely open and check related under the sinks throughout. I really appreciate it. I have (had) no awareness of considerations for either septic or well (pump) functionality, so that is a load of anxiety off my mind. Thank you again.

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kloz70 t1_j6p56ho wrote

Love the commitment to being prepared but all the posts are right. This is really not that big of a deal compared to a storm with wet heavy snow and high wind. Keep an eye on things and you will be fine.

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AnythingToAvoidWork t1_j6p89r2 wrote

Sounds like you're more prepared than most people. Don't bother filling your bathtub lol.

I do recommend bundling up and going outside when it's at the coldest. It's a pretty interesting experience.

Only thing I'd say is that at those temps you may have issues starting your car.

Personally, I'm going skiing.

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SasquatchGroomer t1_j6oyrrp wrote

There's not a huge difference in preparedness between -15Fand +15F.

It's (literally) just a matter of degrees (bah dum ching!)

But in all seriousness...

You'll go through heating oil faster. If you park your car outside, it might be hard to start if the battery is old. If your cars are parked outdoors, you might want to add some fuel line antifreeze to the fuel tanks. It's basically just isopropyl alcohol. If there's any water in the tank, fuel filter, or lines, it'll prevent it from freezing.

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OlFezziwig t1_j6p6gd2 wrote

Regarding using your wood stove. I’m not sure what your setup is, but I have seen instances where a wood stove heats a portion of your house smaller than your furnace does. This may be fine most of the time but during an extreme cold event your pipes could freeze because the wood stove isn’t heating the whole house. Again, this may not be an issue for you but something to consider.

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MysteryOil OP t1_j6p87gk wrote

Thank you. I've been battling with the wood stove all winter. It's in the basement, and the previous owners drywalled the ceiling. So that, in addition to it being (it turns out) a very tightly sealed log cabin, has been a huge headache. 100 degrees in the basement. 60 degrees in the room above it, with a register in the floor directly above the wood stove and the basement door open and 2 other registers in the room expected to work as return registers (spoiler: they don't). I've recently resorted to (at my neighbor's suggestion) cracking a window in the basement, and one on the top floor, and sucking the air through. This has worked for the last week. Not sure how this will play out in the coming days, but gaining various measures of optimism from other points brought up in this thread. Thank you again.

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_tjb t1_j6pbk3e wrote

Something to encourage you:

My house was built in 1790, post and beam, renovated in the 80s, but still not super modern. We have a wood stove in the living room, and a couple of fans to move warmer air to the bedrooms. Works fantastic all winter - all the heat we want and it’s free.

The cellar walls are stone (fitted loosely together - no mortar or anything. Like I said, 1790), and the floor is dirt. Anyway, heating with only wood for the past ten years. In all that time, I have never, not once, seen the cellar go below 45 degrees. I have a remote thermometer down there that sends its data to a station in the living room. Temp outside could be -5. The cellar is 45, and the living room is 80. It’s fantastic.

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Difficult-Building32 t1_j6pbohb wrote

Welcome to NH, please behave. I had this issue when I first moved into my house. Floor registers don't work well. I put a draft inducer on one register and it worked a little better.

What helped the most, was to put a second stove in the room I spent most of the time in... Now we just fire up the stove in the basement in times like this coming weekend.

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Loosh_03062 t1_j6p3l6x wrote

Storm supplies are a Good Thing to have, especially if you're out in the boonies and may be stuck for a few days.

As far as filling the tub, depending on where you are in the state you may be surrounded by water several inches deep, just not in liquid form. Guess what, you also have refrigeration if the power craps out for a while.

Since you have a backup heat source you don't have to worry *as much* about leaving a faucet trickling. In a pinch, your heating oil goes by another name: diesel (my stepfather in Vermont regularly has to run the furnace on diesel because the oil truck driver won't go down an ice-sheeted driveway).

Speaking of ice, you've been warned about black ice, right?

Luckily your first winter here is a mild one so far. This weekend will just give you a taste of what it's like when the temps don't climb out of the single digits for over a week.

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rosiesmam t1_j6p00s4 wrote

Just to prevent your car’s gas from freezing due to condensation keeping the gas tank full helps.

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MysteryOil OP t1_j6p3a8w wrote

Thank you. Added to the list and I really appreciate it.

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rosiesmam t1_j6p470e wrote

You should also get a bottle of Heat to add to your gas tank to help prevent freezing fuel lines

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RelationshipJust9556 t1_j6p7qb8 wrote

blankets and entertainment. We don't lose power due to cold, ice/snow storms yes, but cold won't break the grid.However Nothing wrong with having an emergency kit and/or bug out bag prepped.

keep the place 55 or so, check for cold spots, like under the kictchen sink, you can leave the cab open so heat gets there. you can also leave the tap open to a drip, if it has a freezing issue, but you don't know if it does yet.

pipes freezing isn't end of world, unless they burst. I've used a hairdryer on a number of them to thaw it out.

only issue i see with your plan is if the fireplace heats up your thermostat to the point it shuts off, and other rooms in your house isolated from fireplace start freezing. depends on how many zones you have, layout of house. go around and check the baseboard heaters if they are warm you good.

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MysteryOil OP t1_j6p8ivp wrote

Thank you. Thank you thank you.

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LELANDYEE t1_j6pj0ab wrote

That's excellent advice btw. Keep the water moving in the baseboards and it won't freeze nearly as easily. Or at all.

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jwc8985 t1_j6pbok1 wrote

Also recent transplant from Texas with a little PTSD from the 2021 storm. My wife and I were discussing this today so thanks for asking!

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A_Man_Who_Writes t1_j6pewcw wrote

Everyone has covered everything, but just to calm your nerves a bit, we get short bouts of extreme cold yearly, and so as a region we’re very prepared for it. This will only be 36 hours of extreme cold. Everything will be fine. No one will lose power over the temperature. Wind is another issue, but dry leafless trees can take strong winds. The only real concern in my opinion is freezing pipes, which is easily preventable.

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pointwelltaken t1_j6pdgk8 wrote

If any of your water lines run remotely close to the exterior of the house or are in areas that can get cold and are not insulated leave a small stream of water dripping, so your lines don’t freeze. If it’s a Kitchen faucet with cabinets underneath leave the cabinet doors open, so heat from the room will help permeate the cold area.

Unrelated to extreme cold, but related to winter: learn about roof raking. And ice dams. I had leaks into the interior of the house from ice dams my first winter here because growing up in the South I never heard of such things.

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EmeraldMoose12 t1_j6pic88 wrote

1/4 tank SHOULD get you to Monday. But it’s always a good idea to have 10 gal of kerosene or diesel. And if you need it, it’s better to pour it in your oil fill before you run out of oil.

…although, with that being said, learning to bleed your furnace line after it runs out is a skill to have.

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thepopulargirl t1_j6p2afg wrote

If you don’t know how good your pipes are insulated just leave the faucet in the kitchen trickling all night and day. Better safe than sorry.

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thread100 t1_j6pg7nv wrote

Really the biggest risk in cold is the risk of water freezing. If you live in an old house that is poorly insulated, pipes in unheated crawl spaces or along outside walls risk freezing and splitting. If you have a sink on an outside wall, simply open the doors under the sink to let the heat in. Run the water once in a while. If you’re just not sure, pay attention to how cold the water comes from the taps around the house including washing machine. If the water is getting near freezing, it’s cheaper to trickle the water than pay for repairs.

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Selfless- t1_j6pgy55 wrote

Don’t go outside with wet hair.

Drink plenty of water.

You should already have a humidifier for your home. Use it.

Cold air is dry air.

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IAcadianI t1_j6p7qvh wrote

I would just make sure to drip the pipes just in case. Better to use a little bit of extra water than to have to deal with frozen pipes. As others have said, welcome to NH!

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Hextall2727 t1_j6pdi3p wrote

I'm going to open the cabinets under all my sinks to mitigate pipes freezing. I'm also going skiing Saturday, so maybe I'm not the best example of good judgement.

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MusicalMerlin1973 t1_j6pfx4p wrote

Your septic is fine. The pipes and tank are below the freeze line.

The last few years have been abnormal or the new normal. Used to be the ground was frozen from sometime in November until spring.

This isn’t our first cold snap rodeo. You’ll be fine

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jkarovskaya t1_j6pgyfa wrote

If you haven't already winterized your car/truck coolant, that's got to be done asap or you risk serious engine damage

In NH & Vermont, you want to run a 50/50 coolant -water mix so the fluid tests to about -30 below zero

If you are burning wood in a typical wood stove you should use only hardwood (no pine or hemlock) get your chimney cleaned every year

If it's wood furnace or boiler, some of them can use all kinds of wood, so that's less of an issue

During serious cold snaps, hanging blankets or quilts in front of large windows can help.

You can buy or make window quilts just for this purpose, and they can cut your fuel/wood bills by 30% or more if you have them on every window

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74HDI2MxmrU&ab_channel=LarryDigney

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BionicGimpster t1_j6p8sg5 wrote

If your need to thaw a water pipe, open the fawcet and use a blow drier.
But - If you're house has adequate insulation - probably not much to worry about

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CDogNH t1_j6p9re0 wrote

You need to go to the supermarket and buy all the bread, milk and eggs you can fit in your car. No, wait. That's for a storm. Nevermind, I have no idea.

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totallytrash3140 t1_j6pbhna wrote

Keep in mind when burning wood for heat to cycle your baseboard heat (bump the thermostat a few degrees to kick it on). I use woodstove as well but the stove kept house warm so baseboard heat didn't kick on. One heat zone didnt circulate so one cold spot inside a wall froze.

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justbrowsing987654 t1_j6peglt wrote

Biggest thing - and it’s just cold so you likely don’t need to do much but it’s always good to plan - is assume you’re not going to be able to go go anywhere and that your power goes out. Are you ready?

Do you have non perishable, doesn’t need to be cooked food? Lots of water? CHARGE YOUR PHONE and get a backup battery if you don’t already have one. Figure out how to kill the boredom if power goes out. Have a dog? Figure out how they won’t freeze too. And just wait. It’ll be fine. You got this. Now’s the time for your warmest blankets, best sweatpants, good slippers, and if it’s your jam, a nice beer or whiskey.

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Panzerker t1_j6pchyd wrote

if its gonna snow make some texas chili and dont leave the house

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VinsonChe90 t1_j6pj7ub wrote

You’re more prepared than I am. You’re fine, sounds like you thought of everything.

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Abosco129 t1_j6pbr8p wrote

How old is your place? If any walls near the exterior are not insulated, then you may want to leave warm/cold water slightly dripping. The flow will prevent freezing. Also, for your basement, just touch base in there every so often. A propane tank with a heater can help if the basement is cold.

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Hereforthemadness1 t1_j6pcpvp wrote

My god… wear a fucking sweater. Jesus it’s gonna be below zero at night and low teens during the day…for two days. Consider it an easy entry to NE weather, because this winter has been wicked warm. Years past we’ll go weeks where it’s below zero at night, kinda the norm.

As long as your house is insulted you’ll be fine flatlander.

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huskydannnn t1_j6pghs4 wrote

if your car battery is 5 years old then it will be lucky to survive those temps

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vexingsilence t1_j6p1kle wrote

Milk, bread, eggs.

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foobar_north t1_j6p3qrn wrote

LOL. This is what makes Market Basket look like people are getting ready for the apocalypse before a storm.

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