I'm sure there are a lot of people like me that had to turn their pool pumps on 24/7 to keep the pumps and pipes from freezing and breaking. During the 2021 storm I didn't do that and the new pump cost me right around $1000. It was 6 degrees when I woke up today in East TX. Judging by the weather reports I'll have to run my pool until about Tuesday or it will freeze solid and cost me a ton of money again.
The worst part for me is my HVAC is broken and not blowing heat so I have space heaters and a fire going all day, but it wasn't enough to keep my office kitchen sink and bathroom sink pipes from freezing. My office is in a converted garage (former owners made it into a mother-in-law suite) so the pipes to those areas run through the attic - unheated. The rest of the house was fine, and they thawed out this afternoon. At least we have power this time, although it did go down for exactly 1 second the other day - just enough that I had to reset all the embedded clocks and fix all my smart LEDs.
2021 sucked. I learned a lot from the freeze of 1989. I had drained all of the water out of my house pipes just to be safe. So, even after losing power for days, my house pipes were good. Lots of people had damage due to broken pipes.
Where I failed was my pool. It's supposed to run in "freeze mode", like mine is right now, when it gets cold. That's what they teach in "pool school". But what if the power goes out? (particularly at 2:30 in the morning when it is freezing and wet outside) What do you do? You turn off the breaker to the pool equipment. You then remove all of the plugs in the pumps, heater, and such and let the water run out. I didn't know this. (and don't think clearly when it's 2:30 in the morning and I'm trying to figure out just how to stay warm) I lost my heater, my UV, and had broken pipes. Five grand. Now I know what to do. They should teach this in "pool school".
We can't drain our pools where I am in Texas. If empty, the pool can literally float up out of the ground due to the hydrostatic pressure of the ground.
WAY expensive since I have an in-ground liner pool. If I drained the pool down far enough the liner would end up having to be replaced.
I'm fortunate with my electric plan though. I have free nights from 8pm to 6am. In the summer when my family uses the pool I run the pump for 8 hours during the free time, and during the winter when the pool cover is on I run it for 4 hours a night. Unfortunately I can't do that at the moment.
I will say eventually I'll win the battle with my wife - I hate the pool because all pools are money pits, and she likes it. She has been realizing the money wasted recently, but she still doesn't like my idea of draining it and making it into a tornado/SHTF bunker. Another year or 2 of sheltering in the bathrooms while tornadoes are in the area should do it.
I'm sure there are a lot of people like me that had to turn their pool pumps on 24/7 to keep the pumps and pipes from freezing and breaking. During the 2021 storm I didn't do that and the new pump cost me right around $1000. It was 6 degrees when I woke up today in East TX. Judging by the weather reports I'll have to run my pool until about Tuesday or it will freeze solid and cost me a ton of money again.
The worst part for me is my HVAC is broken and not blowing heat so I have space heaters and a fire going all day, but it wasn't enough to keep my office kitchen sink and bathroom sink pipes from freezing. My office is in a converted garage (former owners made it into a mother-in-law suite) so the pipes to those areas run through the attic - unheated. The rest of the house was fine, and they thawed out this afternoon. At least we have power this time, although it did go down for exactly 1 second the other day - just enough that I had to reset all the embedded clocks and fix all my smart LEDs.
2021 sucked. I learned a lot from the freeze of 1989. I had drained all of the water out of my house pipes just to be safe. So, even after losing power for days, my house pipes were good. Lots of people had damage due to broken pipes.
Where I failed was my pool. It's supposed to run in "freeze mode", like mine is right now, when it gets cold. That's what they teach in "pool school". But what if the power goes out? (particularly at 2:30 in the morning when it is freezing and wet outside) What do you do? You turn off the breaker to the pool equipment. You then remove all of the plugs in the pumps, heater, and such and let the water run out. I didn't know this. (and don't think clearly when it's 2:30 in the morning and I'm trying to figure out just how to stay warm) I lost my heater, my UV, and had broken pipes. Five grand. Now I know what to do. They should teach this in "pool school".
How expensive would it be to avoid all of the freezing hassles and just drain your pool every year?
We can't drain our pools where I am in Texas. If empty, the pool can literally float up out of the ground due to the hydrostatic pressure of the ground.
https://teampoolworks.com/blog/hydrostatic-pressure-inground-pool/
WAY expensive since I have an in-ground liner pool. If I drained the pool down far enough the liner would end up having to be replaced.
I'm fortunate with my electric plan though. I have free nights from 8pm to 6am. In the summer when my family uses the pool I run the pump for 8 hours during the free time, and during the winter when the pool cover is on I run it for 4 hours a night. Unfortunately I can't do that at the moment.
I will say eventually I'll win the battle with my wife - I hate the pool because all pools are money pits, and she likes it. She has been realizing the money wasted recently, but she still doesn't like my idea of draining it and making it into a tornado/SHTF bunker. Another year or 2 of sheltering in the bathrooms while tornadoes are in the area should do it.