Our water sometimes freezes. I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not a huge problem – it probably happens twice every 2 years. Usually we remember to leave the faucets running a little on the Really Cold Nights,the ones that are predicted to drop below – gasp, shiver! – 32 degrees.
We also have all the pipes under the house wrapped. But we do have some exposed sections out at the well, around the pump and the pressure tank. We’ve wrapped them in the past but it just never holds out there, even with duct tape. There are a lot of very short sections and too many joints. If it freezes, this is where it happens. And it always seems to happen on my birthday. Happy birthday to me.
But today, as Megan was untangling Christmas lights and hanging them on the deck rails, I had a flashback to a radio program I heard over the weekend. The speaker was telling how a listener protected her delicate saplings from freezing by covering them with a sheet and hanging Christmas lights on them to generate enough warmth to keep them from freezing.
Now I’m thinking we should decorate our well and pressure tank with the extra lights. I don’t think our display would win any awards, but we can throw a tarp over it to trap the heat. I would sure enjoy a hot shower, a flushing toilet and a cup of coffee on my birthday.
hope it works for you!
What you need is called heat tape. It keeps the lines from freezing and uses a single double a battery once a year.
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Let us know how this works.
I wanna see! Throw a photo on here!
We have a well house as did my grandparents before us. We have both used a 100 watt light bulb turned on for cold nights and it has kept our pipes from freezing. Old incandescent bulbs waste more heat than fluorescent, which is a plus for this.
We freeze more often here in Alabama than Texas does but it helps a lot.
Berean Wife
They say necessity is the mother of invention. I think you might just be on to something!
We use the heat tape… it’s wonderful. Ours plugs into an extension cord. We just leave it wrapped all year, but plug it in when it gets cold and unplug when it warms in the spring.
Our well has a little building over it like a dog house with a door. And we keep a regular light bulb shining on it in the winter. Hope you done freeze.
Use zippy ties to hold the insulation in place. It will not matter if it gets wet. Hope this helps!!!
Happy birthday! Is it today? If so, my son is your birthday buddy.
Whatever day it falls on, I hope u have coffee, a hot shower and definitely a flushing toilet! 
Melanie,
Thanks, but my birthday is a lot closer to Christmas. I’m just trying to plan ahead this year.
Hubby thinks heat tape would be a better idea, but since the lights are already paid for he said I could hang them out on the pipes around the well and pressure tank.
I’ll try to remember to take a picture a little later. Twilight might be a good time for that.
Here’s a tip from someone who can relate : )
We put a Vision Forum cardboard sword box and a chicken brooder lamp with a 100+ watt bulb over our water pump on those nights that it gets cold. Words great!
For pipes that don’t fit in the box that are still exposed, we’ve used those long grey foam tubes that you can get at WalMart for a couple of dollars each and wrap the pipe with those. The children…….or the goats…….or both………have a propensity for removing them from time to time…….especially if the boys want a sword……..but they’re cheap and they do help to insulate exposed pipes.
The strand of lights might be the icing on the cake, so to speak : )
I think I’m picking up some more today for our hose between the pump and the trailer. Our pump stayed nice and toasty during last week’s freeze thanks to that VF cardboard box and TSC chicken brooder lamp, but the hose froze even when we left the faucets dripping overnight.
Laralee
Last year, the day that I came home with our newborn primie, was one of the coldest days that year and one our water pipe froze and burst!!!! No fun!
So we had no water and no heat and a newborn that needed to stay warm! Lets just say that she spend several days inside my shirt to keep her warm!
Renee,
I had a tiny taste of that experience. The night before our 2nd baby was born – at home – our pressure tank burst, so we had no running water.
I don’t remember what we did, but in our case it didn’t end up being as big a deal as I thought it would be. Funny how those memories fade over the years, isn’t it?
Oooo! Sounds fun, adorable, cute, and ridiculously funny. Let us know how it turns out. (don’t forget to include some pics.
)
We lived in an old ranch house several years back where we had to put hay bales along the north side. Not making any fashion statements with that one.
Your idea might work…except don’t they make all the lights these days “energy efficient?” Might not be much heat there to go around. hmmmmm….
No matter…could make for an interesting display!
Blessings,
Amy