When you own a home, whether it is an old house with bad insulation, a mobile home with good insulation like mine, a cabin in the woods, if you are living off the grid, and happen to still have running water, you may have to improvise when it comes to keeping the pipes from freezing. Of course, the best thing is to have someone go into the crawl space and add insulation under the water pipes, but if you do not have anyone to do this for free or do not have money for a plumber, you may have to take precautions, so as not to have a very expensive and inconvenient water damage situation. Worst possible scenario is the water pipes bursting.
These are tips to take to keep the pipes from freezing, and to thaw them out quickly if they do. For a long time, I thought it was the hot water you leave dripping, but it is the cold. Leave all cold water taps, including the bathtub, dripping slightly. Keeping the water flowing keeps it from freezing up. You can fill the tub with water just in case if you like, but rarely will the hot freeze, but it can. The toilet pipes can freeze as well, making it impossible for new water to poor in while flushing, and fill up the tank, requiring you to have to flush the toilet with hot water. I guess it does not have to be hot, but I had this happen recently, and I used hot water, and I think this helped to thaw it out faster. I did not know at first why the handle was not flushing, but I looked in the tank, and saw that the water was way down. I went on line, and the symptoms were frozen pipes, and the cold water on all faucets, including the kitchen were frozen. I held a hairdryer to the toilet pipes for a while. Fortunately everything thawed by late morning when the sun came out, and the temperature had risen.
You can also wrap a heating pad around the sink pipes to help thaw them out. However, to take preventative measures, you need a space heater or two, depending on the number of bathrooms. I borrowed one from family, but I also have another small one on order. If you keep a small safe space heater running on low, with the bathroom door closed all night, this will keep the pipes warm. Keeping the cabinets open helps as well. This enables heat to get to the pipes better.
Lastly, check the whether report on your computer. Windows 8 has an app just for that. You can also check on your cell phone, TV or radio, not to mention news paper if you are old fashioned.
The other night, the toilet pipes froze in my home. The heat would not get over 65 degrees in my home. This is an indication that all precautions should be taken. Like they say, a stitch in time saves nine. We once lived in a beach front winter rental when my house first sold, in '95. The pipes froze, and the condo owners had to send some guys to thaw the pipes in a high rise building, quite a job. So, if you do all these things I suggest, everything should be alright.
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