And the amazing part Mark is it's just about as hard to cool a house as heat it.

So far just a bunch of drizzle here, 40 miles away is a winter wonderland though. Hoping it stays away.

Calling for up to an inch and half of ice here by tomorrow afternoon. Just looked at the radar and the ice is gonna let up for a little bit then come back with a vengeance about 9. I am in shock that we still have power!

Wow a inch and a half of ice is no joke. Best of luck to you down there. I am happy with the snow we are supposed to get rather than your ice.

I know that it doesn’t get blue cold down yonder very often, but…….I think I’d freeze proof a house for the rare occasion that winter shows up down south.

Little below zero here. Wood boiler outside is humming along. 2 years of wood in the shed. All is well!

Even with geothermal it gets tough, this is why I can’t believe peoples houses down south aren’t better insulated than ours are up here.

But they are the ones that have it all figured out. If you don't think so just ask them. I have seen cold and this isn't it.

We had a bad freezing rain/ ice storm in 08 or 09. Broke tons of trees We were without power 9 days. I was on my 7 day off period so we took a train to Denver to visit a friend. We missed the living without power that way. Came home to busted pipes.

Having a basement and piping underground makes a big difference in how freeze proof water lines are. In Ohio most houses, schools, hospitals and other buildings, that people occupy most of the time, have basements. Depending on soil type somewhere between 12' and 30' underground maintains a constant temperature of 52F to 64F all year, for much of the country. That's why deeper caves feel comfortable all year. Most basements are at least 8' deep and help moderate the temperature.

My well head is in what likes a concrete bunker. It's about 8' all around and sunken into the ground about 7'. It sticks out of the ground about 30". It has a 3' by 3' concrete slab that covers the entrance on top. I have to use a ladder to get in and out of it. It stays in the fifties down there all year. If the slab wasn't such a pain to reposition, I'd use the pit as a root cellar. I should make a lighter, insulated top that's not so close to the same size as the entrance hole.

If I ever build a new house, I'm going to build most of it underground in a hillside. It would need little heating or cooling. I would have windows to catch the sunlight in the Winter.

Keith

Not all of us southern hicks run our water lines in the attic. Most folks I know run their waterlines under their concrete slab or like me under their house in their crawl space. I can see why some would run theirs in the attic but obviously a leak means your ceiling is ruined. Then again under the slab can flood out your floor so its not much of a better option I guess.

I do that in my cabin on the Mississippi in Wisconsin. Winterize it and close it up until spring.

Another old trick was leave a tap on just a dribble to keep pipes from freezing up when I was a kid