So Saturday's NWS forecast was finally hitting the future actuals with single digit lows. I can't recall when (Saturday afternoon or Sunday afternoon) the power started showing up for three minutes...falling to thirty seconds...then gone for the duration until Thursday morning. Up to that point (knowledge from 1989) I had all pumps running (well pump frequently to feed streaming outside spigots (I'd wrapped those with heat tracing in 89) and some inside faucets with north wall piping, koi pond and big pond and the swimming pool heat pump heater. Everything froze solid. Ten feet from the fireplace it was 43 degrees. Next Thursday the power comes back, getting to 46 F outside, the well thaws out unknown, and we get to see everything that's leaking after about five minutes. Meanwhile the well is almost uncontrollable (the control box and pressure switch were scorched). Copper pipes crossing the attic that I had no idea existed burst in several places. We are replacing those spans with PEX (connecting back to existing copper where we can't reach). First though we fixed many pipes and capped some for the time being...hot showers and no more melting snow!. I've ordered a half dozen "Freeze Misers" from Amazon ($150) for that next cold event that may come in my afterlife. Ha ha.
I've come to realize that a little 5 kW Honda generator could have saved the well and the plumbing: Flip the well breaker when the power got crappy, wire a 220 plug to the contacts in the control box, fire up the generator. In lieu of a whole home generator (like a fifty kW commercial), I'd rather winterize, blow the water out of the pipes, shut off the power, leave for the Bahamas for a week.
Ole Billy Gates claims this was an event of climate change...look at the daily recorded weather history...there's over a hundred years of it.
