Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
heat. In general, the head loses heat at the same rate as the rest of the uncovered parts
of the body, and it only accounts for about 7 percent of the surface area of the body,
but when the rest of your body is covered with heavily insulated clothing, that 7 per-
cent of uncovered head area will account for the majority of heat loss.
• A backup electrical power generator. Even just a small quiet portable 2 kW generator
can make a huge difference on your level of comfort and convenience during a black-
out. Though not big enough to generate sufficient power to directly heat your home
or power an electric hot-water heater, it can provide enough power to run the fans on
a furnace, keep your refrigerator operating, and turn on a few lights, a radio, and a
computer. See
chapter 4
for more information on these items.
A “Winterizing” Checklist for the Home
Some of you may live in cold climates and have a standard winterizing procedure that you go
through every fall before the freezing weather sets in, and thus have no need for the following
checklist. For others who experience brutally cold weather only on rare occasions, this check-
list could be quite helpful for preparing your home ahead of time when alerted by the weather
forecast that a freeze warning is in the offing.
• Remove garden hoses from hose bibs, otherwise attached hoses may hold water in-
side the outlet of your hose bibs, resulting in split fixtures during a hard freeze.
• If you do not have “freeze proof” style hose bibs, wrap each hose bib in foam or
fiberglass insulation covered by duct tape or plastic.
Note:
“Freeze proof” hose bibs
mounted on the exterior of a home have an extended lengthy valve stem that projects
several inches inside the home's wall, so the pressurized “wet side” of the valve is
actually located inside the home in a freeze-protected area, and the part of the valve
that is exposed to freezing exterior temperatures drains free of water after each use.
Freeze-protected hose bibs extending vertically from buried outdoors pipes, such as
in a garden area, have a long stem that goes into the ground to where the actual valve
is mounted on the piping buried below the frost level in the earth (typically between
12 inches and 6 feet below the surface, depending upon the recommended frost-free
bury depth for your area). In order to work properly, both types of freeze-protected
hose bibs must drain the water from potentially freezing zones of the hose bib after
each use.
• If you have a home with a crawl space underneath the first floor, and you live in a cli-
mate that experiences freezing temperatures at least some of the time, you probably
have an enclosed foundation with screened foundation vents located at standard in-
