Hello, I am new to these posts and have a quick question. My heating system consists of a normal gas furnace, and I have water baseboard heat and radiant heat throughout my house.
When I go on vacation during the summer, I turn off the water main to my house and drain the normal pipes (bathtub, sinks, etc.)
Now for the winter, I would like to turn off the main...but I am worried about the heating pipes freezing so I would like to keep the furnace active.
What would happen if the water main is turned off and the heat is still on? Will the furnace run into problems...?
COMMUNITY FORUM
It is a closed system so it should be ok.
However you are gambling on the fact that nothing is going to go wrong with the boiler.If it does good bye everything even if the water main is shut off.
Some heating systems have glycol to prevent them from freezing.
When you say furnace you mean boiler right?
Also when you winterize a plumbing systen you need to put rv antifreeze in all the traps and toilet bowl and drain the tank,drain the water heater.
They have smart new technoligy systems that can automatically notify you if the temp starts dipping inside the home,just something to think about.
However you are gambling on the fact that nothing is going to go wrong with the boiler.If it does good bye everything even if the water main is shut off.
Some heating systems have glycol to prevent them from freezing.
When you say furnace you mean boiler right?
Also when you winterize a plumbing systen you need to put rv antifreeze in all the traps and toilet bowl and drain the tank,drain the water heater.
They have smart new technoligy systems that can automatically notify you if the temp starts dipping inside the home,just something to think about.
Sorry I'm brain dead when it comes to this stuff. I have a Natural Gas Weil McClain heating unit. That is 140,000BTU's. I guess that is a boiler..haha. I would not know if there is glycol in the system or not. Is there a way to check? I believe the unit was installed in the house in around 2003.
Basically my wife and I might be going for a week or 2..and the temperatures may get very cold. So I was going to leave the heating system on 60...but close the water main...and drain the pipes.
How would you put glycol into a system if need be....
Basically my wife and I might be going for a week or 2..and the temperatures may get very cold. So I was going to leave the heating system on 60...but close the water main...and drain the pipes.
How would you put glycol into a system if need be....
I would not know if there is glycol in the system or not. Is there a way to check?
In this particular case I would have a good heating company come check it out.
This way they could test and see what temperature it is protected to.Kinda like they check the antifreeze in a car.OK
One rough way to tell is to drain a little water out and it would smell and feel oily to the touch,(careful it's highly toxic)but that wouldn't really tell you anything as far as the freeze protection level.
I'll tell you this though.A furnace always fails when you least expect it to,and it's always at the most inconvenient time,Like Christmas Eve for example.
Just my opinion
In this particular case I would have a good heating company come check it out.
This way they could test and see what temperature it is protected to.Kinda like they check the antifreeze in a car.OK
One rough way to tell is to drain a little water out and it would smell and feel oily to the touch,(careful it's highly toxic)but that wouldn't really tell you anything as far as the freeze protection level.
I'll tell you this though.A furnace always fails when you least expect it to,and it's always at the most inconvenient time,Like Christmas Eve for example.
Just my opinion
