Winter Power Outages

[DebraLynn]

Weather is cooling down here. Getting ready to winterize the ponds, This is my first year here in this Zone 5 with a pond. I had ponds in zone 9 for years. Now I worry about pipes busting and I can not decide weather to leave my falls running or not. I live high in a Nation forest it is not really rare to lose electricity for a week or more. If it all freezes I do not think my pipes are below freezing line in most of the places. I am leaning toward turning it off and draining the pipes once winter gets closer. I know I have posted about this subject before but I did not include all information about power outages normal. I welcome any input. Thanks

DebraLynn

 

[mrsclem]

I live in zone 7 and shut my pumps down every year. All tubing is drained and brought inside. I use a floating heater to keep the ice open. In case of power failure hot water can be used to open a hole in the ice (heated on the gas grill). We actually bought a gas powered generator not for the house but for power failures with the ponds.]

 

[DrDave]

Put a valve at the lowest point so you can easily drain the pipes each year before freezing.

 

[DrCase]

I leave my pumps running as long as i can but power outages surprise me some times and cause me trouble also
I take my drain valves off during the winter and put on rubber caps i find that the lowest point with still water gets a little colder and the rub caps are cheap and wont crack and they come off when i want them too

 

[shane_sda]

I live in 3A. I pull out the fish and my pump in late October. Let the thing freeze over and start again in April. Ponding in Canada. Nothing but fun.

 

[j.w]

Time to buy that nice big, expensive generator from Costco I'm thinking, after all nothing is too good for our fish right

 

[lifeworthliving]

Time to buy that nice big, expensive generator from Costco I'm thinking, after all nothing is too good for our fish right

I need to look into that. Not bad winters here, but lose of power is common. Thanks for the idea.

 

[addy1]

We have a generator that I hauled from arizona, my other hubby never hooked it up, and it is still not hooked up, here in maryland................lol

So far only get power blips, one 4 hour loss when a car wreck happened. We are rural but pretty stable. I think it helps that our lines are under ground here.

Unless your temperature sits in the low 30's while your power is off, you should be ok lifeworthliving, we are hitting 25 right now...............darn canadian air, cold front. What temperature range to do you have in the winter? i.e. what is the lowest temp?