What's your weather like?

[niener]

Wait. Elaborate on the pipes thing...

I believe you're supposed to leave a faucet or two dripping just a tad to decrease risk of freezing and busting, and any pipes exposed to the outdoors you're supposed to wrap, but someone that actually lives in a cold climate can correct me on that...

[niener]

I'm scared to see what our gas bill is going to look like next month. Our old drafty house is not equipped to handle these kind of temperature extremes. Our furnace has been running nonstop for the past 24 hours and it just can't keep up -- heat is set to 68 and it's currently 61, got down to 58 last night. Outside it's 15 which is a record low for this area.

[MrsK]

Just talked to my mom. She's acting like it's Armageddon here and warning me that it's going to be cold like this every winter. Mom, it's snowing in TEXAS right now and the temps will be back in the 30s by the end of the week.

[JDAZ11]

I'm scared to see what our gas bill is going to look like next month. Our old drafty house is not equipped to handle these kind of temperature extremes. Our furnace has been running nonstop for the past 24 hours and it just can't keep up -- heat is set to 68 and it's currently 61, got down to 58 last night. Outside it's 15 which is a record low for this area.

I'm worried about the same thing. The internal rooms in our apt are about 130 degrees, but it heater is definitely not able to keep up in the rooms with windows. $$$$$$$$$!

[HouseofWool]

Honestly? If it is that bad, take some blankets and hang them over the exterior walls. Or, shut those rooms off and live in the interior ones if possible. When we were kids, the house wasn't well insulated and the furnace worked all the time. We actually shut off the entire upstairs to the house, closed the heat ducts and hung several blankets over the door to the stairs. It was probably in the 30's upstairs, and in the 60's downstairs. We had 6 people living in 3 rooms for weeks on end because it wasn't possible to keep the house warm enough.

ETA: This was the winter of 1981/82 and the weather was record breaking that year. Blizzards that raged for days on end, air temps staying at 20-30 blow - it all sounded exactly like the weather from "Little House in the Big Woods" which is only about an hour from here.

[WolfpackWife]

Yesterday we tacked up a down blanket over the sliding glass door in our room. It helps, but the other two windows...you can just feel the cold air flowing in. The whole apartment is very poorly insulated. I miss a "real" house. Let the dog sleep on the bed last night, I thought he'd be too cold in his bed. It's fucking freezing outside. I actually do not think it's been this cold (I'm talking windchill temps) in NC (even though I'm not in NC right now) since I've been alive. This is not okay. And I'm irrationally pissed that DH decided not to go to lectures today because it was too cold and instead is studying at home, all toasty. Meanwhile I had to walk 15 minutes in the sub freezing temps from my parking deck to my office building. I totally think he should have driven me to work (which would have wasted a total of about an hour of his day driving me here and then picking me up this evening), but he did not feel the same way. Chivalry is officially dead, people.

[HouseofWool]

Yesterday we tacked up a down blanket over the sliding glass door in our room. It helps, but the other two windows...you can just feel the cold air flowing in. The whole apartment is very poorly insulated. I miss a "real" house. Let the dog sleep on the bed last night, I thought he'd be too cold in his bed. It's fucking freezing outside. I actually do not think it's been this cold (I'm talking windchill temps) in NC (even though I'm not in NC right now) since I've been alive. This is not okay. And I'm irrationally pissed that DH decided not to go to lectures today because it was too cold and instead is studying at home, all toasty. Meanwhile I had to walk 15 minutes in the sub freezing temps from my parking deck to my office building. I totally think he should have driven me to work (which would have wasted a total of about an hour of his day driving me here and then picking me up this evening), but he did not feel the same way. Chivalry is officially dead, people.

Hang stuff over the other windows and live in a cave. I haven't opened my curtains in days because it is so damn cold and you can feel the temperature difference between the window and curtains versus in the room.

And I rocking awesome triple paned windows (WOOT for the old biddy who owned the house previously) - On a normal winter day there is a difference of about 4 degrees between the temp of an interior wall and my window glass. I have one of those infrared thermometers for soap making - I got curious about how well the house is insulated - pretty well as it turns out.

[niener]

Honestly? If it is that bad, take some blankets and hang them over the exterior walls. Or, shut those rooms off and live in the interior ones if possible. When we were kids, the house wasn't well insulated and the furnace worked all the time. We actually shut off the entire upstairs to the house, closed the heat ducts and hung several blankets over the door to the stairs. It was probably in the 30's upstairs, and in the 60's downstairs. We had 6 people living in 3 rooms for weeks on end because it wasn't possible to keep the house warm enough.

I just blocked off the two spare bedrooms as best I could (neither of those doors shut all the way but I put blankets around the edges), but those are the only rooms I think I can block off. I shut the door to our bedroom for the time being and most of our windows have thick curtains which have been closed since yesterday. I think the biggest problem is the floors -- we live in a flood prone area so all the houses in this area are built up, there's 2+ feet of space between the ground and the floors. So all that cold air just keeps circulating underneath the house and the floors are friggin freezing, you have to wear shoes to walk around. This is what I get for wanting a house "with character", ha. On the upside, the sun is shining and we're now up to a balmy 64 inside

[rufflesanddots]

Yesterday we tacked up a down blanket over the sliding glass door in our room. It helps, but the other two windows...you can just feel the cold air flowing in. The whole apartment is very poorly insulated. I miss a "real" house. Let the dog sleep on the bed last night, I thought he'd be too cold in his bed. It's fucking freezing outside. I actually do not think it's been this cold (I'm talking windchill temps) in NC (even though I'm not in NC right now) since I've been alive. This is not okay. And I'm irrationally pissed that DH decided not to go to lectures today because it was too cold and instead is studying at home, all toasty. Meanwhile I had to walk 15 minutes in the sub freezing temps from my parking deck to my office building. I totally think he should have driven me to work (which would have wasted a total of about an hour of his day driving me here and then picking me up this evening), but he did not feel the same way. Chivalry is officially dead, people.

Ooooh that would piss me off. I dropped DH off right at his chem lab this morning instead of across campus at the normal spot we stop. I then drove to work and sat in my Uggs, coat, and beanie for another 30 minutes before I warmed back up. We were in San Diego 48 hours ago, and now this! Wtf, yo. I was told NC was mild!

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

[diggitydot]

I believe you're supposed to leave a faucet or two dripping just a tad to decrease risk of freezing and busting, and any pipes exposed to the outdoors you're supposed to wrap, but someone that actually lives in a cold climate can correct me on that...

Yup, this is correct. Open up cabinets where there are pipes (to get warm air circulating around them), open a couple faucets to drip, and cover outdoor faucets with those boob/nipple looking foam doodads. Turn off the exterior water supply at the valve, of possible.

If you have an irrigation/sprinkler system, you need to blow all the water out with an air compressor before the first freeze to avoid a leak when shit warms back up. If not, you'll spend the early spring digging up and replacing sprinkler heads, tubing, and connectors.

[Cinderella]

Oh snap! We just got our electric bill for Dec.

[spotty_dog]

I'm scared to see what our gas bill is going to look like next month. Our old drafty house is not equipped to handle these kind of temperature extremes. Our furnace has been running nonstop for the past 24 hours and it just can't keep up -- heat is set to 68 and it's currently 61, got down to 58 last night. Outside it's 15 which is a record low for this area.

Holy moly. Our house is currently at 61 because it's SET at 61. I can't imagine having it at 68 all night! I'd roast! Not to mention heating all those rooms no one is using!

In Cleveland (where we got sub-freezing regularly and sub-zero occasionally and lived in a drafty old house) we couldn't afford the fancy thin almost-clear window film that they sell at Home Depot so we taped thick "transparent" sheeting on the windows. We bought draft-dodgers for under the doors. And we kept the heat at 55, praying that residual heat from the downstairs neighbor would keep us/the pipes from freezing completely, and using a space heater to get the bedroom warm before jumping in under the covers with an electric blanket. I used to sit in a back bedroom with a hat and fingerless mitts of an evening, warming myself with a cuppa tea and typing on the internet! Fun times!

[niener]

Holy moly. Our house is currently at 61 because it's SET at 61. I can't imagine having it at 68 all night! I'd roast! Not to mention heating all those rooms no one is using!

Haha, just goes to show how different houses heat! 61 is really cold in this house, but the last house we lived in was a townhouse and much better insulated and we kept it between 62 and 64. One of DHs co-residents who lives in an apartment a few blocks away hasn't even had to turn on her heat this year until two days ago.

[spotty_dog]

I do remember how frigid it can be when the cold seeps in from sub-freezing outdoor temps!

[HouseofWool]

It was -9 here this morning and today's high is 25. I am so freaking excited!