Elderly man freezes to death in home

[VandalSquirrel]

Originally Posted by fantASTic

For some reason, 68 in the summer vs 68 in the winter are two completely different temperatures. I think the thing is that, especially in big houses, it may be 73 by the thermostat but NOT in the bedrooms and ESPECIALLY not in the basement. Tile and wood floors are also very cold. Plus...in GA, the winter temp is in the 50s or so, right? Maybe 40s, but rarely lower? We routinely get to the negative degrees, especially with wind chill.

Bedrooms can be 5 degrees below the rest of the house in temperature, too.

Vandal: How do your pipes not freeze???

Because freezing is at 32 degrees and my pipes are all interior except those to the kitchen sink/dishwasher. Those pipes come directly from the garage which is built into a hillside and well insulated. I also leave the cabinet doors open, and the heater comes on at 45. I'm not home a lot, no point in heating the house when I'm not home. I can see my breath at about 43, which is why I set it at 45.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by VandalSquirrel

Because freezing is at 32 degrees and my pipes are all interior except those to the kitchen sink/dishwasher. Those pipes come directly from the garage which is built into a hillside and well insulated. I also leave the cabinet doors open, and the heater comes on at 45. I'm not home a lot, no point in heating the house when I'm not home. I can see my breath at about 43, which is why I set it at 45.

have you tried leaving your faucets on at a slow drip?

supposedly, by doing that, you can avoid pipe freeze.

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

ETA: sure, the number of people who will meet the criteria you outlined is probably pretty limited, but it seems that there's a better way of dealing with the whole issue rather than just saying certain folks are exempt from getting the utilities cut off.

It's not that limited, if you think about it. The elderly, ill, people with kids, and those who need power to treat chronic illnesses (that could be as basic as asthma or diabetes, if a case is severe enough) are the most vulnerable. That pretty much eliminates everyone except for able-bodied young and middle-aged people without children in the home. Those people should be able to pay their own power bill.

It seems to work well here in NYC, since people don't freeze to death all winter long.

As far as "the pioneer days" and people not having electricity then, we also live in areas of the world that weren't exactly habitable before the advent of electricity and the automobile. Also, one of the interesting advances of science is medications sometimes have to be refrigerated. We can't pretend that we can do without the things people did 150 years ago because times have changed.

[Benzgirl]

Originally Posted by VandalSquirrel

Because freezing is at 32 degrees and my pipes are all interior except those to the kitchen sink/dishwasher. Those pipes come directly from the garage which is built into a hillside and well insulated. I also leave the cabinet doors open, and the heater comes on at 45. I'm not home a lot, no point in heating the house when I'm not home. I can see my breath at about 43, which is why I set it at 45.

One of my previous homes had the bathroom pipes along a southwest exterior wall. Someone told me to buy Heat Tape to wrap the pipes. Luckily, there was a trap door to the pipes in one of the bedrooms, so it was doable.

This worked until it was maybe 15 degrees, then I resorted to the "slow-drip" process. I also found that an blow dryer could unfreeze a pipe pretty quickly if you knew where it was frozen.

As for bedrooms being 5 degrees colder, not in my house. My bedrooms are upstairs and heat rises. At night, the thermostat is set on 60. Otherwise, I think I'm getting hot flashes.

[VandalSquirrel]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

have you tried leaving your faucets on at a slow drip?

supposedly, by doing that, you can avoid pipe freeze.

No need to, my pipes don't freeze. Plus I couldn't live with myself if I wasted water like that.

Yeah, I have issues regarding the environment, but I also thought it was beautiful today and it didn't get above freezing. Had on my sunglasses and enjoyed the sunshine.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by fantASTic

For some reason, 68 in the summer vs 68 in the winter are two completely different temperatures. I think the thing is that, especially in big houses, it may be 73 by the thermostat but NOT in the bedrooms and ESPECIALLY not in the basement. Tile and wood floors are also very cold. Plus...in GA, the winter temp is in the 50s or so, right? Maybe 40s, but rarely lower? We routinely get to the negative degrees, especially with wind chill.

Bedrooms can be 5 degrees below the rest of the house in temperature, too.

Vandal: How do your pipes not freeze???

There's actually a lot of variety in terms of winter temps in Georgia. Daytime might be 50s in the Atlanta area with nights in the thirties. In the North Georgia mountains they have a pretty real winter (by most people's standards, I think) with lows below freezing 90-100 days a year according to this site: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ffc/html/clisumlst.shtml. Further south, it's certainly more moderate until we're practically Florida.

I'm not trying to suggest we're experiencing the temperatures that other people do. I'm just amazed thinking about what it would cost to keep my house at 73.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

It's not that limited, if you think about it. The elderly, ill, people with kids, and those who need power to treat chronic illnesses (that could be as basic as asthma or diabetes, if a case is severe enough) are the most vulnerable. That pretty much eliminates everyone except for able-bodied young and middle-aged people without children in the home. Those people should be able to pay their own power bill.

It seems to work well here in NYC, since people don't freeze to death all winter long.

As far as "the pioneer days" and people not having electricity then, we also live in areas of the world that weren't exactly habitable before the advent of electricity and the automobile. Also, one of the interesting advances of science is medications sometimes have to be refrigerated. We can't pretend that we can do without the things people did 150 years ago because times have changed.

People lived in some pretty cold places before electricity was taken for granted, but I'm not suggesting we should go back. I'm pretty grateful for air conditioning in the summer, especially. I just think it's odd how relatively quickly we've come to accept an entitlement to electric power.

I think utilities are something that ought to be a high priority for people to pay for themselves. The number of people who actually can't pay is probably pretty low, but if we make too long a list of people who get power whether they pay for it our not, I think we're going to see a lot fewer people on the list making paying for utilities a priority.

But I'm certainly not saying that we cut power off and let people freeze to death. I just think there may be other effective ways to handle the issue.

I suspect that heat in general is less of an issue in NYC because of shared building heat among apartments. If you are on a floor fairly high up in a building, you might not even need much of your own. So, if power bills are pretty cheap, there probably are not a lot of people who are trying to justify to themselves not paying for it.

You just want to be careful what you indirectly invite with public policy.

[libramunoz]

It depends on where you live as to why you'd let the water drip at night. In a slow drip, it's just that, turn on the faucets enough so that the water just drips. We do it in the winter, even though it's Texas. People don't think that it will freeze down here, but it does. I've got mine dripping right now in the kitchen and one of the bathrooms and in the outside faucet.
If you have PVC piping, the water will freeze and bust the pipes. It's a horrible mess. We had it happen many, many, many times in my Mom's trailer house. It gets to be annoying as hell! In my house (which was my Grandparents) my Granddaddy installed everything with copper piping, but I just don't want to take the risk of having something burst underneath the house.
I only keep the water dripping in the places that I use the most (my bathroom and the kitchen). But then again, I don't have central air and heat, I use window units, propane gas, and the wood stove to keep warm.
It is easy to freeze to death in a home if the person has no heat. I was surprised that the county didn't offer him some type of program assistance, which is usual in most counties to help avoid this.

[madmax]

The guy lived 93 years. His time was up. It is a non story.




I am glad when we have a good cold spell to clean the bums out of the park.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by madmax

The guy lived 93 years. His time was up. It is a non story.




I am glad when we have a good cold spell to clean the bums out of the park.

I guess that means if I am a racist (which you called me)then you are an age-ist.

One day you will wake up and you may be 73 years old and freezing to death, I wonder if your mind will change then about what you said....heh.

[madmax]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

I guess that means if I am a racist (which you called me)then you are an age-ist.

One day you will wake up and you may be 73 years old and freezing to death, I wonder if your mind will change then about what you said....heh.

No. That is the difference between us. You will probably be sitting around your crib in da hood waiting for Obama to turn on your electric while I am out working to pay my bills and yours.


holla

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by madmax

No. That is the difference between us. You will probably be sitting around your crib in da hood waiting for Obama to turn on your electric while I am out working to pay my bills and yours.


holla

Go fuck yourself you ignorant @ss bastid.

"holla"


Funny thing about the hood....lil jack@sses like you wouldn't last.

You would be running back to mama and daddy first chance you get 'cuz 'they' look at you funny.

[SWTXBelle]

What's going to happen in all those places who are without power, and are expected to be without power for some time, due to the storm??

[VandalSquirrel]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

What's going to happen in all those places who are without power, and are expected to be without power for some time, due to the storm??

I know that many communities have emergency plans in place, and those who cannot survive that situation are brought to temporary/emergency shelters (high school gyms, church basements, so on).

[aggieAXO]

This is why I well never leave the south, I hate being cold. I keep my apt about 70 during the day and 74 at night. I just visited a friend in Durango Co and she had the thermostat set in the 50's-I was so uncomfortable i could barely sleep. If it is less than 40 degrees outside I will not go out (unless i gotta go to work).