NEED HELP. Upstairs Heat NOT working

beenthere · Jan 28, 2003

With no snow cover (here and many places in the mid west) there are some real deep frost lines this winter. One thing that helps is to cover the ground above buried water lines with hay or straw. Even if done now, the heat in the ground from below will be drawn towards the surface if covered with some insulation like hay.

The water lines from my well head are completely above ground, and never freeze. So I don't have any to be worried about under ground.

Wingnut · Jan 28, 2003

I didn't really like the zone valves either .... but installing another couple of $250 pumps wasn't really an option either ... I just stopped worrying about wasting heat on unused parts of the house and turned down the boiler heat a bit ... so if a thermostat called for heat, the whole house got it ... and I turned on the ceiling fan to make sure the heat was distributed. Almost decided to just do away with the zone valves and have an open system .... but then decided it wasn't worth (it weren't broke so I didn't fix it).
Outdoor boiler was my next project since I had a huge woodlot (and dislike fireplaces) ... but I got transferred first .... and now I got no woodlot ... so I'm back to propane ... sigh. Oh well, at least the heating pipes will not freeze up .... and neither will my barn hydrant 'cause the heat tape gets turned on the first time I hear the forecast nearing freezing ... and it stays on until spring, just in case.

hazmat · Jan 28, 2003

<font color=blue>I can't wait to hear if this thing works!!!!</font color=blue>

Good News: It works, pipes thawed

Bad News: Pipe burst

Good News: Leaking in garage, not house

Bad News: Tractor got wet & has to spend night outside.

Plumber is coming tomorrow morning to fix pipe. With one lame hand, I figure it is money ($50 base + $16 per every 10 minutes for Emergency work) reasonably well spent.

How it works: Makes 300 amps at 5 volts. need to be able to put clamps on either side of frozen pipe, near freeze. 10-15 minutes later it melts the ice enough for the water to move thru and melt the rest.

RichZ · Jan 29, 2003

Since you have to have the clamps on either side of the frozen part, I guess I can't use it on my underground frozen pipe that goes to my hydrant in the barn./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Thanks for the info, though.

hazmat · Feb 4, 2003

Plumber came today, It is a toasty 68degrees as I type this. We've got heat again woo hoo /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Supposed to get cold again soon too! Don't know what the damage is yet.

Thanks to everybody for helping me work thru this problem.

MikePA · Feb 4, 2003

How's the hand?

Egon · Feb 4, 2003

What all did the plumber do?

Egon

hazmat · Feb 4, 2003

Mike,

Hand is healing nicely

Egon,

the plumber cut the pipe where it went into the outside wall & ran new baseboard heat along the knee walls inside the house. See attached pic.

edt · Feb 5, 2003

Rich is your pipe copper or plastic too the barn check with dealer if it is copper it may work also is the pipe below frost line also how long is the run underground
EDT