Our power was out for about 24 hrs, so we went to in laws. Our power is back on, but no water (apparently a lot of Spring Branch doesn't have water and/or really low pressure). We've been here since Monday evening, so I am ready to leave. Hopefully roads aren't too bad tomorrow. I'll go check the house and see if we have water, and if we do, I'm ready to get out of here (after thanking them for being a good host...just ready to sleep in my own bed and get the kids back on a regular schedule).
I was looking on Twitter for some weather info for my area, but saw the following for Houston in case it affects anybody : https://info.centerpointenergy.com/PDF/News-Release-CNP-conservation-2-17-21-FINAL.pdf
Good luck with that. Once people get power back, it’s gonna be like Times Square in everybody’s house.
They're basically saying, chill out with the heater. Everything else in the house is almost negligible.
I don’t believe pipes freezing is the problem. The problem is water in the pipes freezing and then expanding which busts the pipe. If you don’t have water in your pipe you should be fine. If you don’t have power and have water, you should shut off your main water line and drain the pipes so the water in the pipes can’t freeze. If you do have power, keeping your home warm should be sufficient to keep the water in the pipes from freezing. atleast that’s my understanding...
If you are in spring branch, having power at one time does not mean it will be there for future. Several work places tried to open based on which buildings had power the previous night and it all changed.
Well I was only able to do a temp fix on one of them, but I used some 1 inch id hose and some hose clamps to patch up the joint that had its solder fail and it worked well. I don't have access to the other break because it's in a spot in a hole drilled in a wooden beam so the house still has no water. For that one I'd need about 8 inches of new pipe, a copper pipe cutter, and some couplings to fix.
Is online part ordering an option? I know it might take time but it also might be the fastest way to get parts and tools. As a temp fix can you cut and cap that section of pipe or is a the main line? If you can't find copper pipe, maybe do a copper to PEX to copper transition if can find the 1 foot sections of PEX they sell at Lowes or Home Depot. And I know some people don't like them but I've used Sharkbites over the years and never had one go bad - and crazy easy. Just make sure you get a straight, clean cut. If online ordering is a problem, I can get some parts locally and send them if you need.
Was listening to Texans radio tonight for who the hell knows why, and Vandermeer and John Harris were comparing the power outages to hurricane situations, but Vandermeer pointed out this feels worse bc when it’s a hurricane once power goes back on it tends to stay on. I think that’s mostly true. The complete uncertainty with all this has made my anxiety crazy. I worked out 5 times today to deal with the stress of everything. I love snow and Monday was cool and all, but Geezus we need to get it together.
Hard for people to do when they are coming off of 20, 40, 60 + hours without electricity. People are going to try to get there homes as warm as possible as fast as possible in fear of another long term shut off.
I noticed a pattern with our electricity 2 nights in a row it was shut off right around 10pm It came back on for roughly 20 minutes every 3 hours until 4pm the next day, at that point it stayed on until 10pm Essentially gave us a bed time, and had it shut off during work/school hours, with small breaks of electricity every couple of hours, and one big 6 hour block of electricity during the afterwork/school till bedtime hours It makes sense, but as a house that works from home, has kids that aren’t in school, still sucks. Hoping tonight is the last night of this ****, but with roughly 1 in 10 Houston residents not having power at any given time, who knows.
