Cold wave

Last night, the temp went down to 11 degrees F here. This morning, woke up to find the pipes had frozen at the meter and I had no water all day until this afternoon, when it warmed enough to thaw. Have to keep the faucets dripping tonight to prevent that from happening again.  Tonight, we're supposed to go below 10 degrees F.

Got some part of the house weatherproofed today. I have a.. thing which juts out from the house and houses the entry to the crawlspace. It's part of the original structure, there is no door on it (doesn't appear there ever was) and the roof is badly decayed. Today, I removed the roof and stapled black plastic over and all the way around this structure. This has been a major entry for cold air into the crawlspace. Tonight, can tell the difference strongly. 

This is where my first solar project will be placed. Going to line that area with black plastic and build a frame up to the top of two windows. Then staple translucent plastic sheeting to the frame. It's a simple thermosyphon  structure. The crawlspace opens to the bottom and cold air enters from beneath the house. While the sun is up, it will heat the air, which then rises. Open the windows and the heated air enters the house through the windows. Even if the solar aspect doesn't do much good, just having the frame there blocks cold air from much of that side of the house, especially the crawlspace and windows. So it has heating value even without the solar value. If it works well enough, I'll make it more permanent in the future. I have plans to build a patio in that area, any way, so I will have to adjust the plans to incorporate solar heating. Though it has to adapt for summer cooling, too.

I also taped plastic over the screen doors and the bathroom window, which eliminated some drafts. Got some electrical outlet cover gaskets and put a few of those in place tonight. I have 120 ft of weatherstripping to put around my steel casement windows, which are also rather drafty. Walmart has weatherstripping for $3 for 60 ft, plus the outlet cover gaskets, which were also $3 or $4. Have a few tubes of caulking which I got at various places, average $2 a tube. Have to put that stuff to use, also. 

One difference is that the bathroom is warmer. My daughter complained about how cold the toilet seat was last time she was here. She should be happier now. Don't blame her for complaining, cold toilet seats are one of life's worst experiences (and I've been on the wrong end of a gun several times). 

I got a working dryer this week for free off of craigslist. Someone was giving it away and I was the first one to call about it. They had moved and the new house didn't have 220V outlets, so they gave it away. Really nice guy! It's not new but not too old and works well. Since it's electric, I'm venting the exhaust into the house instead of outside and taped up the vent until spring.