How To Protect Your House When The Heat Is Out

You wake up and realize your house is cold. The thermostat confirms it, your heat is out! There are steps you can take to protect your house from frozen pipes if outdoor temperatures are below freezing.

1. Use space heaters in the rooms where you have water lines. Leave the cabinet doors under sinks open to allow warmer room air to reach the pipes.
2. If you have a water line near an exterior wall, keep the cold water dripping or running just a bit. This will help keep the water in the pipes from freezing. If you have had trouble in the past with an area of your home freezing up, be sure to use a space heater or heat lamp in that area as a precaution.
3. If your indoor temperature is getting close to freezing, or if you will have to wait a while before a service technician can come out to your home, you will want to turn off the main water line coming into your home. After that, go around to each cold water faucet and drain the water out of the line. Don’t forget the washing machine. This will not protect the water in the traps from freezing, but it should minimize your damage.
4. Once your furnace is repaired and the house warms up, do a careful examination to make sure there is no water leaking. A burst pipe is easy to find, but a small crack in the trap under a sink could do quite a bit of damage before it is found if you don’t look for it.

No one expects their heat to go out, but it’s likely to happen at some point. Prepare today by purchasing a space heater and marking your main water shut off so you’ll be ready for the worst. For more ideas about how to protect your home when the heat is out, contact the experts at P.K. Wadsworth Heating & Cooling. We’ve seen our share of cold Cleveland homes in the 78 years we’ve been serving the Cleveland area.