Help With Preventing Freezing Pipes

[schinz]

Hi All,
I have been browsing here a while and thought I would post my question here for all the knowledgeable people on here to respond to. My wife and I are planning on building a getaway cabin in rural SW New York in Chautauqua County. The area averages over 200 inches of snow per Winter. We will want to visit the cabin several times in the winter but are trying to figure out how to best keep the pipes from freezing between visits without going broke on heating expenses. The cabin will be loft style with a total of about 1450 square feet. We'd like to use a wood stove or wood stove isert as the primary heat source while we are there, but does anyone have any suggestions of how to keep the pipes from freezing when we aren't there short of heating the whole cabin to 50 degrees?

Thanks!!
Stefanie

[Shark]

If there is no water in the pipes, there is nothing to freeze....
If you plan properly, have a couple drain valves in certain spots, you could empty the water lines before you leave, may require an air compressor to blow them out too.
That's what we do at our cabin at the lake, since we don't get there too often during the winter time.

Otherwise, as you noted, you need to keep it from freezing, which could get expensive.

[StressMan79]

I have seen a system with a drain that is emptied every time the occupants leave. It worked well

The claim the cross-linked polyethylene (PEX) does not rupture due to freezing water.

I am using the pex, as well as a passive solar design that should keep the inside 40+ even when I am gone. I'll let you know how that goes, I'd like to make a computerized recorder that takes the temperature all winter long every hour inside the house. If I get something like that up and running, I will post the results on the member's side.

of course you could brute force it with heat tape, of course I wouldn't recommend this, as you are far more likely to burn your house down this way than with solar.

-Peter

[ramblinman502]

every fall we shut down a clients pool house...its a bit of a process because when they built it they didnt plan well. youll need to remember to drain the hot water tank..n open all the faucets as well..if you plan not to heat the place to above freezing.



Not all who wander are lost...

http://s888.photobucket.com/home/rusty_bucket_album/index

[loghousenut]

Doesn't matter much if pex can stand it. Every fitting and the water heater is vulnerable to freezing. Don't forget the P traps in the drain pipes.

I had to replumb a vacation home that had bad freeze damage. I planned and replanned until I had everything sloping to a low spot with one drain valve for cold and one for hot and one for the water heater. Shut off the incoming and open three valves and then go inside and open every valve. Worked flawlessly and never lost another pipe.

That all happened here in Southern Oregon where the frost depth is less than a foot. I suppose you would have to have one of those hose bibs with the remote shutoff valve down in the ground where you live.

[dvb]

You only have these two choices. My two cents is to heat it because we use it during the winter. I don't like to wait several hours while the house warms up when you arrive. A well built house won't use much energy to keep a few rooms at 50. My parents house is close to where we are building and they keep it at 50 due to all of the use us kids give it during the winter. We close the bedroom doors and don't heat them when we are gone. I am going to use a thermostat that I can control over the phone, it will also tell me the current temp in the house.
Then again, if you leave the house cold for the entire winter, I would drain everything and use anti-freeze in the traps and toilet.