Opinions desired on home heating (short and long term)

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve been living in my first floor condo (part of a larger building with multiple units) for about a year now, so I’ve not gotten used to its quirks yet. It’s just shy of 890 square feet. There are baseboard heaters in the two bedrooms, but the rest of the place is only warmed by a gas fireplace, which obviously isn’t something I want running while out or asleep. I’m personally fine with blankets and sticking to the bedrooms when appropriate, but I realize there are more concerns than that.

I live in a region where subfreezing temperatures are not unheard of, but relatively rare. A cold snap is coming up with multiple days in a row where it won’t get above freezing.

Question the first: should I do anything special to prevent pipes freezing, especially overnight when it’ll be coldest and I’ll be asleep? The condo was built in 2000, and I kind of assume that a previous owner would’ve done something by now if it was a consistent issue, but the cold snap is also relatively unusual.

Question the second: situations like this (and just daily life) has tempted me to consider other heating solutions for the non bedroom areas that I can leave running while not conscious in the same room and program in advance. This would help with both situations like this and personal comfort. What would you recommend if I did so? How much would it run me?

2

I’ve used an oil-filled plug-in electric space heater. I’m careful not to leave anything on or near it so I’m OK with leaving it running in the living room overnight.

3

You can only be responsible for the pipes in your unit and, for them to freeze, it would need to get below freezing in your place. No matter how many blankets you use I do not think you’d let it get that cold in your home.

I assume the baseboard heaters would be sufficient (but not efficient) at keeping your place above freezing. Whatever the case though, that is on you. If a pipe bursts in your place fixing it and paying for damages to other units may be on you.

Question the second: situations like this (and just daily life) has tempted me to consider other heating solutions…

Short of space heaters I am not sure what you can do. If you want something safe (as these things go) I’d suggest something like an oil filled radiator. (here is one…just an example…I have never used it).

While those units are not overly expensive I have no idea what they cost to operate.

4

Wait, I thought it was possible for pipes to freeze because of outside temps regardless of indoor? Am I thinking of freestanding homes? Or am I completely off base?

Yes, I have considered the solution of leaving the baseboard heaters running and the bedroom doors open, but yeah, it struck me as kind of inefficient.

And I wanted to clarify that potential solutions could include more expensive installation options.

5

I’ll third the oil-filled radiator space heaters for short term cold snaps. Several years ago my gas had to be turned off for several days while I had repairs made to my fuel lines and furnace. This happened during a very cold spell with below freezing temps. At night I kept one heater in front of the opened cabinet below the kitchen sink and one in the doorway of my bedroom half bath which shared a wall with the main bathroom. I didn’t have any issues with pipes freezing. I think the radiators are the safest heaters you can use and they aren’t very expensive. I can’t speak to long term solutions, though.

6

Pipes coming into the building are buried deep enough that they rarely freeze (never say never though).

You also have an advantage over a free standing home that your neighbors are heating their homes and, presumably, there are pipes in the shared walls between units so your neighbors are helping to keep them warm enough to not freeze.

But, I would not rely on them. Keep your place above freezing. It might get cold, but probably not freezing. That should not be too hard unless you lose power.

7

If it is a vented gas fireplace you can replace it with something better. If the fireplace is on an outside wall you can install a direct vent wall furnace. If you want A/C also you can install a ductless mini split.

8

You could add additional baseboard heaters in the rest of the house–but baseboard electric heat is fairly expensive.

How about an airsource heat pump?

9

I also agree on secondary heat from an oil-filled radiator. On the freezing issue, the possibility of pipes freezing depends on the location of the pipes. If you have a window above your kitchen sink, you have water pipes in an outside wall that could freeze so consider doing two things.

  1. Open the base cabinet door under the sink to improve heat flow near the pipes.
  2. If you have any pipes within an outside wall where you cannot increase heat distribution, allow the nearest faucet to drip/run slowly during times of low temperature. This reduces water pressure within the pipes which is the goal because it’s not the ice that bursts the pipe, it’s the pressure created by the expanding ice which in turn compresses the water that causes a break.
10

What Dereknocue67 said. I’ve had pipes in outside walls freeze.

One of our primary heat source is a free standing propane cast iron stove. It’s on a thermostat, so it will turn on when we are not home. We want it to. Of course YMMV depending on what type of stove you have.

We used to heat with wood, which was kinda cool, but really quite a pain in the ass. Having a stove that’s on a thermostat was a life changer.

11

The laws on who owns what in a condo vary by state. And may be further tweaked by your building Association bylaws.

Under the laws in FL that applied to the condo I ran, the building owned 100% of the pipes in the walls, period. If something leaked or flooded or a drain backed up, that was 100% on us to fix. Of course the residents collectively ultimately paid for all that fixing through their dues.

Now if a pipe fails and floods one unit or several, in FL cleaning up that mess is on the individual unit owners. We (the Association) own the shell from the drywall inner surface outwards, and from the concrete floor downwards and from the concrete ceiling upwards. The paint, wallpaper, flooring, and 100% of the contents inside that perimeter is yours. Yours to buy, yours to maintain, and yours to replace if it gets damaged.

So post-flood once the waters receded we’d come in, rip out any damaged drywall, leave the area open a few days to let the interior of the wall dry out, then install fresh drywall and walk away. Over to you. If we had to remove kitchen cabinets or bathroom fixtures to do that work, we’d charge you a reasonable price to do the tear-out and leave it to you to put everything back together. A collossal PITA for the units owners for sure.

FL is also no-fault. Unit owners cannot collect against the building’s insurance for damages to their contents. Except if they can prove negligence on the building’s part. Which is a very high burden. Likewise they can’t collect against a neighbor whose bathtub overflowed unless they can prove negligence.


All of that is nice about FL but the OP probably isn’t in FL. And the real goal here is to prevent a leak, not fight over who pays for fixing a flood.

As others have said, if you have pipes in an exterior wall you have a freeze risk. A risk that it would be VERY smart for you to stake steps to mitigate. If that exterior wall is in a kitchen or bathroom, opening all the cabinets along that wall below countertop height is a good idea if that room gets below maybe 50F. If you’re not sure where pipes are, ask your building maintenance folks; they know these things.

I have used oil-filled heaters for a decade or more while living in hard multi-week freezing conditions in a large multistory house with less than idea HVAC layout and distribution. Never a concern about fire, and plenty toasty wherever you park a heater.

12

What region is this? Are the baseboard heaters electric? Do you have air conditioning?

13

I’m not certain, but I think the only time the pipes are in an outer wall are where they come into the house (the shutoff is in the water heater closet next to the front door). Does that count? Kitchen and bathroom are not outward facing. I’ve definitely considered keeping the water heater closet door open for the extra warmth.

My baseboard heat is electric and I have (and need no) AC.

14

That was my thought. Depending on what you’re allowed to install on the exterior of your condo, a ductless mini-split heat pump might be a good solution.

15

How much below freezing? The general rule around here is that it’s got to get into the mid 20s or stay below 30 for more than a day to be worth doing anything.

That said, dripping the water doesn’t hurt. As long as you’re not in a place where wasting water is a huge concern, I’d probably do that, just in case. We plan to do so here, where it’s supposed to get into, you guessed it, the lower 20s.

16

Both will occur.

17

A possibility which comes to mind is to replace this gas fireplace with some type of a gas space heater which is not a fireplace–since there is a gas outlet there. Perhaps you might post a picture of it.

18

A bit of a hijack, but my heat pump suggestion earlier got me wondering… a heat pump works on the same principle as an air conditioner; it just has some additional plumbing allowing it to both heat and cool. So would it be possible to make the heat pump equivalent of a window unit? Or would a heat pump small enough to fit in a window not be effective enough at heating? I know window units that provide both cooling and heating are common in motels, but I strongly suspect those use electric resistive heat.

19

And if the “wasting water” aspect really bothers you, put a bucket underneath the faucet and use the water for plants or something.

As for the heating, I’d get a space heater or plug-in radiator and a smart plug so you can set it on a schedule or turn it on and off remotely.

20

They do exist, though ones that are true heat pumps, rather than just an a/c with electric resistance coils for heating, tend to be over 10,000 BTU, cost at least $1,000, and require a 208/240 volt outlet.