Brian Smith, the newest member of the Energility team provides useful information for both residential and commercial buildings on getting ready for the cooler weather in the following article.
There is a time and a place for everything
By Brian Smith
I learned a lot from my dad- He taught me (painfully for both parties) how to drive a stick, how to play euchre (lead the right bower), some basic carpentry skills (measure twice/cut once), right ti-ghty vs lefty loosey (do NOT cross-thread) and a myriad of other skills. However- the most important take away is the idea that there is a time and place for everything. This is very applicable in nearly all aspects of life, none more so than getting your personal/commercial property ready for winter.
If you haven’t noticed- it is starting to get cold. I have quietly taken my flannel shirts out of the closet and will be in full Carharts soon enough. No reason to worry- it is not going to snow in the next couple of weeks (probably?) but rest assured- it will snow soon. You might want to get the snow blower fueled up and ready. The days of getting in your car and driving to work when the temperature is 70 degrees F at 6:00 am are gone. There might be one or two days left, but the temperatures are dropping. The leaves are dropping. Your electricity bills should be dropping. Oktoberfest is nearly over.
Don’t let that lull you into a false sense of security. The electricity bills may be easing up, but the natural gas bill is coming. I don’t budget for using natural gas until October.
It is now October.
There might not be White Walkers approaching the wall, but I assure you- Winter is coming.
Here are a couple of questions to ask yourself:
- Have you changed the filter in your furnace?
- Imagine the embarrassment and financial pain of calling out a vendor to look at your furnace. It won’t come on. It is cold outside and getting cold inside. The technician finally arrives and notices that your filter is no longer a filter, but more of a blockade. It won’t allow air to pass. Your furnace will not convert the potential energy in the fuel source to the desired outcome of adding heat to your specific area. Pipes freeze. Family is cold. Tenants are angry. The $9 dollar filter you could have purchased and replaced yourself just became a $200 service charge. The “man-splaining” you received on the importance of air filtration from the technician was gratis.
- When is the last time your furnace operated?
- I would guess it has been 6-9 months. Most people like to gamble. Maybe some bingo, fantasy football or even a scratcher from the convenience store. Personally, I enjoy a friendly game of small stakes poker. Rolling the dice on your furnace starting when it is 14 degrees F outside is not what I would consider small stakes.
- Do you have a hose or outside water supply? Put simply- it will freeze if it has water present, and it becomes cold enough.
- Do you have a water feature in your garage? Do you want one?
- I have a garden hose connection in my unattached garage. It is VERY convenient. I will also be draining it soon to avoid it freezing.
- Do you have a parking garage?
- Are there floor drains in the parking garage?
- Are the floor drains insulated and heat traced?
- You might think that is not necessary but look at how much snow falls off of cars as they park. There is traditionally a fair amount of road salt present as well. I enjoy exploring caves and stalactites are an awe-inspiring sight. Seeing a 500 pound ice stalactite hanging in a parking garage inspires awe, but in an entirely different manner in the current risk conscious society that we currently live in.
- Does your parking garage/loading dock/outdoor area have a dry system for fire suppression?
- Did you test it this year? – Good job.
- Did you get the water out of the system after the test? Did you get ALL of the water out of the system?
- Moisture will accumulate. The water may be residual- but it will absolutely still freeze
- Do you have sprinkler lines near an exterior door? Does this door close properly? If the door doesn’t close properly, and it is extremely cold outside, the sprinkler line will freeze. The frozen sprinkler line will break, and water will come out. Some would file that under a “bad day.” I can confirm- it is a bad day.
- Have you ever noticed a unit heater of some capacity? Next to a sprinkler line. Close to a door that may or may not have a tendency to stay open during winter? I wonder what happened? Hmmm?
- If you remove enough heat from water, it WILL freeze. It will expand. It will break pipes. It will leak somewhere that you don’t want it to leak. Hopefully it is not above a server room or your coveted baseball card collection. Johnny Bench was a great baseball player- but he is no match against the destructive power of incoming, uncontrolled water. Have you seen the Grand Canyon? It isn’t the “mediocre canyon.”
What are you doing to ensure that the heat will be available, and the water is either removed or properly cared for to avoid freezing?
Unfortunately, the time and place that most people are aware of a problem is when they are calling a vendor for a costly expense. They reach the vendor and are told that it will be 2 days until they can get there as many people had the same idea of waiting. It will probably be after hours when after hours rates apply. If Black Friday is when retail makes their budget numbers for the year, the first substantial cold spell is when plumbers and pipefitters make their budget number for the year.
You can alleviate yourself of this painful experience. Flooding water from a broken water line is a problem that is avoidable. Your furnace will stop working at some point. You can make that point much further down the line and hopefully when the weather is cooperating. Not that there is a good time for a furnace to break down, but January, in Ohio, is a particularly bad time. Maybe the worst.
When it comes to water- drain it. If you can’t drain it- verify that you can’t drain it. Understand WHY you can’t drain it. If you still can’t drain it- insulate it. Heat it. If you heat it- VERIFY that your heater works. If you have an electric/gas unit heater next to a water line that you want to avoid freezing- but the gas valve is closed or the breaker that serves this tripped 9 months ago- The water line will still freeze. Physics apply.
Nobody wants to have the conversation with a tenant as to why their equipment is ruined.
Nobody wants to have the conversation with the insurance adjuster.
Nobody wants to have the conversation with their spouse.
These conversations are usually loud, one sided and relatively unpleasant.
Be the superhero that you know you can be. YOU have the power.
This is the time AND the place.