Wood Stove Heating and No Frozen Pipes! by Jesse Turner

We've been heating our home with a wood stove for quite a few years now, but every year I'm told that I'd better get a propane heater for supplimental heat "cause your pipes are gonna freeze". Well, they never have, sub zero temperatures and a cold wood stove in the morning and I still have running water - must be clean living or dumb luck, however you want to look at it.

One thing I've heard time and again is, "You need that duct work in your crawlspace because it keeps your pipes from freezing". Now, this statement strikes me as "odd", why would I want to heat my crawl space, it seems just a little bit wasteful; after all if I want to heat all of outdoors there is an easier way to do it - open all the doors and windows. Next explantion, "It's the leakage from the duct work that keeps the crawlspace above freezing", Oh, I see, you purposely live with an inefficient form of heating to heat your home and solve the freezing pipe problem - and pay through the nose for fuel.

Just in case my "clean living" doesn't make the grade and I don't have that kind of luck - dumb or otherwise - I decided that there were some things I could do to prevent freezing pipes. To begin with I already have a perimeter foundation dug down 4ft., I know that temperatures at that depth stay fairly constant, roughly about 45 degrees. The earth around the crawl space does not insulate, but, acts like a capacitor, it slows or evens out temperature fluctuations; so, it knocks out the highs and lows - cool in summer and relatively warm in winter. To insure that the ambient temperature remains above freezing the floor has been insulated - to put a cap on the ground heat.

Now that I've used some of the natural resources available to me to keep the crawl space above freezing, I now do the common sense things like keeping pipes away from the access door and any vents. Insulating all pipes (note: what I think is common sense seems to conflict with what other people consider convienence, er, common sense.)

Still no frozen pipes to this day, but, the premonitions of frozen and bursting pipes are forecast, without fail, by family and friends. I know the backlash will be severe when I finally do have my first frozen pipe, because I do have the tendency to rub it in their faces a little - just a little.

So, I torment all of the people who say my pipes should be frozen with the fact that they don't freeze, while I can - I figure it won't hurt... too much.

Author Resource: Husband and father, one time itinerate merchant and story gatherer, that has settled down to live the simple life and recount some of the experiences that have led me here. Author and Admin. at
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