Current Events > Well... I'm about as prepared as I'm gonna be for this freeze in Texas

(+) Yeah! (+)

• Solar roof was finally activated last month. I'm staying on the grid as much as possible through this to keep the batteries at 100% just in case the grid goes down again. I don't want to start the outage at 75% or whatever.
• I've got bottled water
• I've got plenty of food
• Outside pipes are wrapped
• I can charge my car in my garage if necessary, and it'll be charged up to 90% in about a couple hours.

I'm so glad I decided to buy a home last year. I've got so much more control now.

Godspeed

Awesome! You got warm clothing and good wool socks and stuff so you can keep the heat a little lower?

Enderknight17 posted...

Awesome! You got warm clothing and good wool socks and stuff so you can keep the heat a little lower?

Yeah.

• Heated coat.
• My bed has a foot warmer
• I've also got a space heater that I'll use if power goes out and the house gets too cold. I've got the house heated to 70 degrees right now, so I also won't be starting the freeze with the house at 60 - 62 degrees like I did in my apartment last year.

If the grid goes down, I probably won't run the heat since the emergency heat uses like 13kWh and that would drain my batteries in about 3 hours.

Texas isn't good with cold weather sadly.

good luck sir.

make sure you disconnect any exterior water supplies (ie hoses)

Cheater87 posted...

Texas isn't good with cold weather sadly.

I think its because of the people in charge of Texas make poor decisions about that kind of thing. But they keep getting reelected anyway

Outside pipes? Do you just mean the outside faucet?

KiwiTerraRizing posted...

Outside pipes? Do you just mean the outside faucet?

Yeah, my bad

I'm turning my water off Thursday morning. Luckily I don't have to work. I have some outdoor plumbing.

KiwiTerraRizing posted...

Outside pipes? Do you just mean the outside faucet?

Ive never heard of wrapping it. I just shut off the valve to it and drain it.

Cuticrusader09 posted...

Ive never heard of wrapping it. I just shut off the valve to it and drain it.

What I have, specifically, are insulation bags tied around them.

ugh, guess i should grab a few days worth of pizza and cigarettes

just hearing about this

TheMikh posted...

ugh, guess i should grab a few days worth of pizza and cigarettes

Man, pizza sounds good, too, lol. I'm trying to get back to eating clean, though. That has been my biggest struggle since I stopped doing crossfit and started staying home back in early 2020 when covid started.

CableZL posted...

What I have, specifically, are insulation bags tied around them.

Same, I also have some exposed plumbing underneath the place that are wrapped. But to be safe I'm going to shut off the water at the road.

2021 storm it worked just fine doing that, and it's not going to be below freezing as long.

Maaan... I am not looking forward to this. I love colder weather, but I don't love frozen hellscapes.

Dont forget to unscrew the hoses.

I'm pretty nervous, I'm gonna be out of town. I have family staying in my house to take care of our pets but still not sure they are prepared for an emergency. My tankless water heater is outside and that's my main worry, especially if the power goes out.

BuzzKilljoy posted...

I'm pretty nervous, I'm gonna be out of town. I have family staying in my house to take care of our pets but still not sure they are prepared for an emergency. My tankless water heater is outside and that's my main worry, especially if the power goes out.

I would think about wrapping that in insulation.

Hope it goes better for people than last time. That was crazy.

Up here it's going to be below 0 for like the next week. But that's normal.

modena posted...

Same, I also have some exposed plumbing underneath the place that are wrapped. But to be safe I'm going to shut off the water at the road.

2021 storm it worked just fine doing that, and it's not going to be below freezing as long.

Wait, youre going to shut off the main water supply at the street?

KiwiTerraRizing posted...

Wait, youre going to shut off the main water supply at the street?

With homes, you'll typically have a valve you can turn off just for your house that's near or on the street. Mine is in my front yard.

Yep I'm cutting it off at the road. I have 2 shut off valves between here and there but my RV has solid above ground plumbing and I want to be sure everything drains.

CableZL posted...

With homes, you'll typically have a valve you can turn off just for your house that's near or on the street. Mine is in my front yard.

Must be a southern thing. In the Midwest you have a main shutoff inside the house but everything before that is buried deep enough itll never freeze.

KiwiTerraRizing posted...

Must be a southern thing. In the Midwest you have a main shutoff inside the house but everything before that is buried deep enough itll never freeze.

Maybe. Mine is outside, but it is underground and covered with a lid.

CableZL posted...

Maybe. Mine is outside, but it is underground and covered with a lid.

Yeah, in colder climates that would freeze too often. I have a sprinkler system set up like that but get it bled and shut off in October.

Good luck. Keep us updated.

Last time we had an outage due to a hurricane, the batteries didnt charge much for the next 2 days since the skies almost completely blocked out the sun was only getting a few KW per day. But through very efficient use of electricity we managed to make it last until the sun was out again.

I'd invest in a generator.

Just got the Stormwatch alert on the app that would make the system prioritize charging the batteries to full. I was already doing that says in advance in this case, though.

Tomorrow is game time