I'm planning on putting up a temporary door between the dining room and kitchen when the power goes off, that I can open and close to try to maintain the kitchen temp at just above freezing. This way (assuming it's a cold January, and it usually is), whatever food is left in the fridge will last a little longer, and also the kitchen will serve as an "air lock" for when we need to go outside (There's an outside door off the kitchen). Since we'll be doing meal preparation on a propane stove, we figure that'll warm the kitchen up enough to keep things from being too miserable.

If you do this, just make sure you drain the pipes to the kitchen sink. Not a bad idea to drain the whole house anyway, since I imagine most people won't be heating their basements anyway.

-- Bokonon (bok0non@my-Deja.com), August 31, 1999

Answers

Now is a good time to make sure your water shut-off valve works.

-- && (&&@&&.&), September 01, 1999.

If you are going to use a door for this, don't forget the weatherstripping, etc. If you are talking about temperatures that cold, normal inside doors aren't insulated enough to keep the cold out. Just MHO.

-- James Collins (jacollins@thegrid.net), September 01, 1999.

Not to mention the water lines runing through the walls, and the walls themselves. Interior walls are sometimes not insulated at all and this would be really bad news to find out the hard way...

-- OddOne (mocklamer_1999@yahoo.com), September 01, 1999.

Actually, some people may find their basements the easiest room to heat, at least to keep above freezing. A small kero or propane heater in the basement might very well keep the temps there comfortably above freezing.

Another heating possibility is plumbing in some finned tubing in a convection loop at the water heater. A plumber would have to fill in the details, but my brother the heating geek says it will work. That assumes that the water heater is powered by gas and doesn't require electricity to light.

gene

-- gene (ekbaker@essex1.com), September 01, 1999.

Yes, turn the water off, but don't forget the other side of the equation - the drains! If your water is off because of utility failures, the waste water treatment is probably not working, and you could be in for a poo-poo backup coming into your home. So plug your drains and fire up the outhouse! If the outhouse isn't possible, go with the bucket, trash bag and kitty litter! Not pleasant, but definitely workable. Millions of cats use this method even now, in Y1.999K!!!!

Bob

-- bob (bobbrown@rev.net), September 02, 1999.