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Old 01-04-2010, 05:41 PM   #1
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Mid 20 degree - garage type storage

Here in the Houston TX area we have had a colder winter so far this year than in the past few years. Snow in late November with mid 20 degree nights for a couple of days. I drained the water lines from the Airstream when I took it back to storage last month and I planned on pulling the Airstream out and adding the pink stuff but I have not got around to it. Another cold night is predicted tonight in the mid 20'. The trailer is in a very good garage type storage but not heated. What is the likely hood that the temps in the storage will get below freezing with the temps in the 20' outside for a few hours. I am going to go add the pink stuff tomorrow for sure since the forecast is for temps to be below 20 degrees for Thur and Friday night.



Thanks

Don
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Old 01-04-2010, 07:57 PM   #2
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Don -- the potential for damage is low. Very low. Disclaimer: this is intended for locations near the Third Coast and that's about all.

BryanL in Reno, NV, some years back reported on measuring temperatures near the floor in the morning after almost the same overnight temperatures you're expecting. The Airstream was parked in the driveway without the enclosure that you have. The temperature inside the Airstream remained above freezing. Your results may vary...

Empty tanks - good. Maybe RV antifreeze in the shower traps (goes down through the floor). 'May' is fairly conditional -- you just may be okay. The more steps you took, the better. Watch out if your shower mixer valve is on an outside wall -- these are prone to damage. The gravity drain you did may have taken care of that.
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Old 01-05-2010, 10:26 PM   #3
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How did you turn out?

Our local weather tonight was full of stories about Gulf Coast cold. Brrrs! Hate them damp colds!
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Old 01-06-2010, 05:19 PM   #4
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Thanks, it made it just fine, only got down to about 32. But starting tomorrow the forecast for the Houston area is lows around 20 degrees at night through Saturday. I added the pink stuff today so should be fine.

Don, ready for spring.
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Old 01-08-2010, 08:06 AM   #5
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The temp dropped to 27 degrees last night here in the Houston area and the forecast is for even colder weather over the next 2 days. So I am going to run some "non-scientific" test to compare the outside temp with the temp inside my uninsulated and not heated garage. This should give me some idea on how cold it gets in the garage type storage where my Airstream is. Also the thermometer in my Airstream measure the high and low temp by pushing 2 small hands as the temp needle moves. So on my next trip to storage I can see the coldest temp that was recorded inside the storage unit during this cold spell.

This morning the temp outside is still 28 degrees and the temp in my garage is reading 40 degrees. I will check these during the next few days and post the results and then compare them with the actual low temp reached inside my actual Airstream storage.

Don
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Old 01-08-2010, 08:45 AM   #6
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22 degrees at our house and 42 in our insulated unheated garage this morning where our Airstream is kept.
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Old 01-08-2010, 08:48 AM   #7
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All this cold weather in Houston is making me nervous with the TX Vintage rally being held in a month. Hope we aren't all freezing!
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Old 01-09-2010, 07:18 AM   #8
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The temp dropped to 27 degrees last night here in the Houston area and the forecast is for even colder weather over the next 2 days. So I am going to run some "non-scientific" test to compare the outside temp with the temp inside my uninsulated and not heated garage. This should give me some idea on how cold it gets in the garage type storage where my Airstream is. Also the thermometer in my Airstream measure the high and low temp by pushing 2 small hands as the temp needle moves. So on my next trip to storage I can see the coldest temp that was recorded inside the storage unit during this cold spell.

This morning the temp outside is still 28 degrees and the temp in my garage is reading 40 degrees. I will check these during the next few days and post the results and then compare them with the actual low temp reached inside my actual Airstream storage.

Don
Saturday morning

Another cold night got down to 24 degrees. But the temp in my garage was 33 degrees.

Don
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Old 01-09-2010, 07:51 AM   #9
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It's -3 here right now...wanna trade???
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Old 01-09-2010, 08:23 AM   #10
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All this cold weather in Houston is making me nervous with the TX Vintage rally being held in a month. Hope we aren't all freezing!
Steve, the birds will be singing and mountain laurel thinking about blooming. Winter starts with a 'J' (january) in Texas.
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Old 01-09-2010, 10:02 AM   #11
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I'm near New Orleans and it dropped into the mid twenties last night. I keep the trailer here at home so all I did was turn on the heater in the AS and put a light bulb under the water tank. Everything was fine this morning.
Our problem down here is the it just does not get bellow freezing very often. We have no experience with this type of weather. I have never drained the water out of the camper because we can often go out camping this time of year. Many times it's in the 60's or 70's for the weekend so a little trip out can be nice.
We have about two more days when it will drop bellow freezing at night. Any advice that you cold weather campers could give would be much appreciated. We're planing at trip in Oct. or Nov. that will take us up into the mountains. Some nights it could freeze. I'd like to have a plan in place before I go.
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Old 01-09-2010, 11:34 AM   #12
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19 degrees this morning in Austin. 41 degrees in the insulated unheated garage at 9:00 AM today.

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Old 01-09-2010, 11:47 AM   #13
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Thanks for the empirical data points, it's good to know as a reference.

How does uninsulated and unheated garage stay above freezing when it's cold outside at 19 degrees?

Do you think this is mostly the residual heat from the warmer days before, or the solar heat that it soaks in during the day (has it been very sunny)?
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Old 01-09-2010, 04:32 PM   #14
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Thanks for the empirical data points, it's good to know as a reference.

How does uninsulated and unheated garage stay above freezing when it's cold outside at 19 degrees?

Do you think this is mostly the residual heat from the warmer days before, or the solar heat that it soaks in during the day (has it been very sunny)?
That is the question. At what point does the outside freezing temp cause the temp in the uninsulated and unheated garage to reach freezing. So far the spread is between 8 to 10 degrees warmer in the garage. Since it is only dropping below freezing at night the garage does have a chance to soak up some heat inside. prolonged freezing conditions during the day could have an effect on this.

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Old 01-09-2010, 09:51 PM   #15
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I didn't take much of a chance due to the threat of cold weather. I went down to the storage lot and blew out the line, drained the tank and poured a little pink juice down the tanks and into the drain lines. After seeing temps near the single digits, I'm happy I did. I did reset the thermometer inside before leaving so it could capture the interior lows.
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Old 01-10-2010, 06:54 AM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Astroboy View Post

How does uninsulated and unheated garage stay above freezing when it's cold outside at 19 degrees?

Do you think this is mostly the residual heat from the warmer days before, or the solar heat that it soaks in during the day (has it been very sunny)?
I think it has to do with the fairly constant temperature of the earth (soil). The underlying soil doesn't drop to the level of the air temperature. So, you are using that heat to keep your enclosed garage at a temperature higher than the outside temp. If you have a concrete floor, it is also radiating out the heat it has absorbed from the earth.
(Same premise as using geothermal--just takes advantage of the relatively stable 55 degree or so temperature of the earth a few feet below the surface.)
Obviously, the better insulated and air tight the structure is, the better is is able to retain the heat given off by the soil below it.
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Old 01-10-2010, 07:11 AM   #17
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The garage is most likely getting some of that heat from the ground.
Since you don't get much air exchange with the outdoors it stays warmer.
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Old 01-10-2010, 09:51 AM   #18
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Last night the temp dropped to around 29 degrees. I checked the temp in the garage at 7am and it was 37 degrees. I thnk we will have one more cold night and then things start to warm up. It has been sunny for the past 2 days with temps getting up to around 50 degrees. The interesting thing about all of this is that it would appear with a light freeze for a few hours which is what we normally have here in Houston the Airstream stored in a garage type storage should stay above freezing. That's good to know.

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Old 02-05-2010, 12:27 PM   #19
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final results

I brought the A/S home today from storage and I can now report on the low temp reading on the thermometer in the A/S. Although the outside temp did fall to the mid to upper 20 degrees at nioght during the several day cold spell the lowest temp reading on the thermometer in inside the garage type storage for the A/S registered right at 32 degrees. So the garage storage did kep the temp warmer that what was outside. Interesting.

Don
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