{"id":863,"date":"2009-01-15T09:27:29","date_gmt":"2009-01-15T17:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/?p=863"},"modified":"2009-01-15T09:27:29","modified_gmt":"2009-01-15T17:27:29","slug":"owasa-says-protect-yer-pipes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/2009\/01\/owasa-says-protect-yer-pipes\/","title":{"rendered":"OWASA says protect yer pipes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Colder weather is coming. So here&#8217;s a reminder from the folks at the Orange Water and Sewer Authority:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n<strong>OWASA encourages customers to protect water pipes from freezing<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With the forecast of sub-freezing temperatures for several days, OWASA<br \/>\nis encouraging customers to protect their water pipes from freezing.<br \/>\nFrozen pipes can burst and cause substantial damage if a large amount of<br \/>\nwater is released in a home or business.<br \/>\nBelow is a list of precautions for protecting water pipes.<!--more--><br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Pipes in unheated areas of a house, typically the crawl space<br \/>\nand\/or basement, have the greatest chance of freezing. Therefore, it is<br \/>\nimportant to seal openings and air leaks in the crawl space or basement,<br \/>\nincluding access doors, air vents in the foundation, and cracks.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 You can use insulation or even cardboard, plastic or newspaper to close<br \/>\nand seal cracks and other openings- just keep the cold out as much as<br \/>\npossible. Your foundation air vents may have hinged covers so the vents<br \/>\ncan easily be closed.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Insulate pipes in unheated parts of your home.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Leave a trickle of water running continuously from the faucet<br \/>\nhighest in the house. The trickle should be a steady stream the size of<br \/>\na pencil tip, which will only cost a few cents to leave running<br \/>\novernight.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 OWASA strongly supports and encourages conservation. But with water<br \/>\nsupplies adequate at this time of year, using a very small amount of<br \/>\nwater to help prevent pipes from freezing and bursting is a good<br \/>\nprecaution. Broken water pipes can cause substantial water loss as well<br \/>\nas property damage.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Check that the cover is closed on the OWASA water meter box<br \/>\nfor your home or business to prevent cold air from freezing water inside<br \/>\nthe meter. If the cover of your water meter is broken or missing, please<br \/>\ncall OWASA at 968-4421.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 If the heat fails long enough for your house or other building<br \/>\nto get close to freezing temperature, or if you have a vacant building<br \/>\nwith the heat off:<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Turn off the water at the master shut-off valve in your plumbing system.<br \/>\nYour shut-off valve may be in the basement, crawlspace or closet where<br \/>\nwater pipes come into the house\/building. If you do not have a master<br \/>\nshut-off valve in your plumbing system, consider installing one when<br \/>\npractical for future use.  (If you contact OWASA at 968-4421 to have<br \/>\nwater shut off at our meter, there is a fee.)<br \/>\nBefore draining pipes, turn off the water heater to ensure the lack of<br \/>\nwater doesn&#8217;t burn out the heating elements.<br \/>\nDrain the pipes in your plumbing system by opening the highest and<br \/>\nlowest cold water faucets in your house until the water is gone.<br \/>\nBefore turning on the hot water heater again, wait until water service<br \/>\nis restored and the hot water tank is refilled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Colder weather is coming. So here&#8217;s a reminder from the folks at the Orange Water and Sewer Authority: OWASA encourages customers to protect water pipes from freezing With the forecast of sub-freezing temperatures for several days, OWASA is encouraging customers to protect their water pipes from freezing. Frozen pipes can burst and cause substantial damage [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":864,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863\/revisions\/864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}