Preventing frozen water pipes

Hey all,
Help if you can… I’m wondering if there is a low, very low type thermostat that I could use to run my furnace at about 40 degrees thru the winter months in my cabin so my water pipes wouldn’t freeze. The cabin is set on pillars so I would have to enclose and insulate underneath it. I’m thinking of putting in a “T” in the ductwork so some warm air would prevent the pipes from freezing. Does this sound like it would work? If so, who has this thermostat available?
Thanks in advance…
Noel

Honestly, I think you’d have an easier time installing a valve to drain all the pipes if you don’t have one already. Quickly winterize the place each time before you leave and you won’t have to worry about a thing (power outage, thermostat failure, cold spots, etc.).

Doesn’t your furnace already have a thermostat? I turn ours down to 50 during the week in the winter. I believe I could turn it down to 40 too. It is a cheap programmable thermostat that I have. Your challenge will be insulating you pipes, drains and well to allow them to be maintained at 40 degrees in an efficient manner. How well insulated is the rest of the cabin? I watched my neighbor fight this battle for a few years. He doesn’t bother anymore.

Since you are on pillars go ahead and wrap heat tape on the pipes. Insulate.

As mentioned, there is no sure way except to blow the lines in the fall. You also can get a alarm that will call you when the temp reaches a certain low in the cabin. Again, the expense will out weigh just blowing the pipes in my opinion.

I tell many people with houses not to winterize. Just turn the thermostat down. My thought is that the plumbing systems in homes where never installed with the intent of being winterized. It could also be said that nothing in a home was ever installed with the intent of being winterized. We go visit many homes that when dewinterised have repairs that need to be completed.

Now a cabin may be different depending on how it was constructed. Many cabins where built with no intent of being used in the winter. Trying to keep them warm may be more money and effort than just draining them down.

Another thing to think about with finding a thermostat that goes down to 40 degrees is that that is not very far from freezing temps. Also keep in mind that as you get farther away from the thermostat temps cool. If you install the thermostat in the center of the building where many are installed you may be setting it well above 40 degrees to keep a crawl space warm. Set it in the crawl space at 40 and inside the cabin may be cooking.

There are quite a few in-line element heaters such as this available:
heater

I have used these in the pump house at our cabin for a few years now. Beats priming the pump every time when staying up there in the winter!

A liquid mercury switch thermostat (such as the classic round Honeywell) can be used to maintain lower temperatures than are indicated on the face of the device. All one has to do is install it off level. You have to look at the spring and mercury bulb to determine if it should twisted clock or counter clockwise to yield lower temperatures. Of course finding the correct setting is then by trial and error. But once you know as an example that a 60 deg. setting is yielding a room temp of 40 your set. I did this one winter to prevent the footings from freezing in a capped basement.

Yes, there are some digital thermostats that go even below 40. I have a house I turned down to 40 (cheap digital thermostat) and the day I did that I found my AAA batteries in the thermostat were weak from the cold and prevented the furnace from working. The house was 30 degrees after a couple cold nights. Pipes were drained anyways, and basement was 40+. I wouldn’t go colder than 50 degrees myself.

Menards, Home Depot, Lowes, etc carry a simple Honeywell programmable (7 day) digital thermostat that goes down to 40. I installed one in my garage last winter.

I was using the tilted mercury thermostat method before. It worked, but just didn’t trust it for reasons unknown to myself…

Hey all,
Thanks for all the input from everyone!!! I think I’m going to go with John23’s solution. I like the “winterize and forget about it” solution…. No wondering or fretting about, not remembering this or that…
Thanks again to all!
Tight lines;
Noel