Skip to main content

Brutal Cold

How to prepare for the cold

Starting this afternoon, Friday February 12th through this Sunday the Northeast will see the coldest temperatures of the Winter. Temperatures will barely make it out of the single digits and feel like temperatures could reach -20's by Sunday morning due to powerful wind chills.  This can lead to a wide range of issues from frozen pipes, fuel run outs, and broken system due to over working. It is also important to understand the damage this kind of cold can do to your body with prolonged exposure.

It is important to keep your home's thermostat set to at least 65 degrees through this weekend. This is the best way to keep your pipes from freezing inside of your home. The most vulnerable pipes are those that are in external facing walls, this walls will be hit with extremely strong wind burst. You can buy insulating covers and temperature activated heating tape for your pipes at your local hardware store. These shouldn't be an issue in newer homes that are usually insulated extremely will, but in older homes where insulation could have aged and fallen apart it is important to check your insulation and to keep the thermostat temperature up in your home.

In the event that your pipes do freeze, we recommend that you call your current fuel provider to have their service department thaw out your pipes. For exposed pipes that have froze you can try to thaw them if there isn't a rupture. You can run hot water from a faucet, this will release pressure and will start to melt the blockage. 

ckSmithSuperior Santoro Oil

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

La Nina Summer

We Could Experience much Warmer Temps this Summer Last year and even the year before that we talked about El Nino and boy did it come, we saw one of the mildest winters this past winter. Now what, El Nino is the warming of the waters in the pacific, but what happens after the water has warmed? After the warm has warmed, it naturally cools off this is called La Nina. Traditionally La Nina follows El Nino's and present the opposite effects of El Nino. Of course La Nina don't always follow El Nino's, in the past we've seen El Nino's that extend into the next winter or La Nina's that extend for several years. For this year most weather outlets are predicting that we'll see a La Nina arrive around Fall or Winter. To understand what we might see this summer we have to look at last year. For 2015 we didn't see the real El Nino until mid fall and it continued through mid winter, but its effects were seen during the summer.  It brought us unseas...

Thermostat Tips and Tricks

It's time to lock down the thermostat In many homes now that the temperature has started to dip the thermostat might have become a point of issue. One person in the home wants the house warmer while someone else wants it colder to save on money. The thing that everyone can agree on is that heating your home while no one is there is a waste of energy and money. Programmable and smart thermostat allow you to set an away temperature. With programmable thermostat you have to manually go in to set the time for each day it's suppose to go to "away". Smart thermostats like the Nest learning thermostat learn over time based on a week or so of manual temperature changes. Other smart thermostats including the Nest will go into "away" mode based on a cellphone gps location. The upside of these is never having to manually change the thermostat. In some cases the thermostat will start the heat the home before someone gets home so it'll warm and comfortable bef...

What does Home Comfort mean?

Home Comfort starts with the right equipment for your needs and your home. What does it mean to have home comfort, we'll be talking about how to achieve this through your heating and cooling equipment.  Home comfort from an energy standpoint should be viewed through this question, are you comfortable in your home all year around? If you're warm enough in the winter time but maybe paying more than you think you should you're not comfortable. Choosing to sweat in the summer instead off turning on the AC because of the electric bill is a perfect example of not having home comfort in more ways than one. So how can you be comfortable during the winter and summer without breaking the bank, first look at how old your equipment is. If your heating system is more than 20 years old you should consider a new boiler or furnace. Air conditioning systems that are 7 years or older should be replaced. Mini-split air conditioners are much more energy efficient than window units and o...