If you’re planning to be away from home for a few days, or if you own any vacant residential property in Buffalo or Western New York, it’s time to start thinking about what you can do to prevent your pipes from freezing this winter. You see, extremely low temperatures can cause the water in your pipes to freeze and as it freezes it expands—causing your copper pipes to stretch and eventually rip or crack. Once this happens, water can gush into your home unchecked—damaging your floors, walls, possessions, and even your foundation
So, before you shell out thousands of dollars in unnecessary home repairs, consider these 5 simple tips for preventing frozen pipes:
1) Insulate Your Pipes
Insulating your home’s pipes can help them to stave off low temperatures, but only for a short while. Once the temperature falls below 29 degrees Fahrenheit for a period of four hours, no amount of insulation will keep your pipes out of harm’s way. That said, insulating your walls and attic may bring you better results.
2) Don’t Turn Your Heat Off
Rather than turning your heat completely off, it’s better to just lower your thermostat to around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. This will prevent the temperature in your home from dropping dangerously low, while still saving you some money on your heating bill.
3) Keep Your Water Running
This might seem a little wasteful, especially in our green-conscious modern age, but running just a steady trickle of water through your pipes will prevent them from freezing. It’s sort of like how truck drivers in sub-zero climates keep their tractor trailers idling to prevent their engines from freezing.
4) Open Cabinet Doors
Another simple thing you can do is to open the cabinet doors beneath your sinks as well as any doors leading to crawl spaces. This will allow the warmer air in your home to reach these areas. Although, this won’t help any pipes located outside your home’s thermal envelope (such as those found in a non-insulated attic).
5) Home Temperature Monitoring
Let’s say you followed our advice by leaving your heat on and your thermostat set to around 50 degrees, but right in the middle of your week-long Caribbean vacation, a snow storm of biblical proportions hits Western New York—knocking out the power all over town and cutting off the flow of electricity to your electric thermostat or furnace. Now, as your home rapidly becomes the largest walk-in freezer in North America, who will notify you of the icy danger? How will you know it’s time to call your brother-in-law to get over to your house ASAP with his space-heaters and gas-powered generator? SHIELD® Security Systems, your provider of home alarm monitoring, of course!
We consider home temperature monitoring to be a fundamental part of your home alarm system. Temperature sensors, strategically located throughout your home, will sense when the temperatures fall into the danger zone—raising a red flag (metaphorically of course) and prompting your home security system’s control box to send a signal to our monitoring station. Once we know your home is at risk, we contact you immediately so that you may make the necessary arrangements to correct the situation.
As part of your alarm system monitoring system, you also have the option of being automatically notified via text or email alert when temperatures in your home rise or fall to predetermined levels. When you think about, shouldn’t all home security systems companies in Buffalo incorporate temperature monitoring?
About SHIELD Security Systems:
SHIELD Security Systems of Buffalo, a franchise of The SHIELD Security Systems Franchise Development Group based in Buffalo, NY provides electronic security systems, monitoring and video surveillance for residential and commercial applications. For nearly 40 years, SHIELD Security Systems has served the WNY market offering alarm monitoring services for homes and businesses without the FREE sales gimmicks commonly advertised by other alarm companies. SHIELD has earned a solid reputation as a dependable alarm provider delivering consistent, honest value to their clients. For more information about their services, visit SHIELDBuffalo.com