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Arlene Wright-Correll |
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Arlene Wright-Correll |
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How
to Make a Simple Heat Light to Keep Your Pipes from Freezing or
Presenting Carl’s “Gadget”! By Arlene Correll Whether you close up your homestead for a brief
winter vacation, or for the whole season, or just want to stop worrying
about your pipes freezing while you are living and dealing with the
winter, then this little gadget is for you.
Providing you have electricity! We had to think of something for all of those situations at one time or another and Carl our residential handyman, father of our children and all round modest genius always loves to tackle these little challenges. |
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Where our pipes come into our home, he dug a hole about 18 inches square and about the same in depth. He put a 3 sided plywood shell inside the hole with the open side hitting against the foundation or in our case the slab of our house. He also made the sides higher towards the back and lower towards the front, so there would be a nice slant when he put the top on the opening. |
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Into the box he put his “gadget” and this is what it looks like. The shorter fixture just has a 40 watt bulb in it and when lit
it keeps the taller fixture which has a photo cell on it from coming on.
Should the shorter fixture bulb blow out, the photo cell senses
it immediately and the taller light fixture comes on. Once he has threaded the lamp wire which is
connected to these two fixtures though the small drilled hole, he
attaches the 2 prong plug to it. We just leave that little plug laying there all
year long and once it get cold, we plug it into the outlet and leave it
there all winter until it warms up in the spring and then we disconnect
it. He puts a piece of tin or wood on top of the opening of his box outside. He makes sure that his cover is bigger than his opening with a good overhang. Also inside this box he puts in some moth balls and
a package of de-con or else the mice and
other small critters will take up residency in this warm little space
and perhaps chew up your wire. He
then covers his top with a bigger piece of plastic (black or clear, it
doesn’t matter as long as it is thick..)
Then he covers the whole thing up with about 12 inches of straw. Here is a small diagram of what he makes. The cost of this “gadget” is approximately $15.00. |
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We have successfully used these “gadgets” for
years and he makes them whenever we need them. Right now he has decided that the small bathroom he
has in the garage is too small for all the various heaters he has tried. Since this home was built with the intention of never spending the winter in it he never put any heat in it. We now find out that as we get older we don’t travel as much as we used to and are here most of the winter. |
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He has made a similar one with a single 200 watt
light bulb ( no 2nd fixture or photo cell) and will encase it
with a small 4 sided stained glass globe that he will make. Carl spent a great deal of his life in the world of building, and is a retired certified electrician, plumber and builder. He says that 200 watt bulb burning 24 hours a day will cost only a few pennies each day and will be a lot less expensive than installing and heating it with any other source. He has it going in there right now and it is nice and toasty and quiet in there. About
the author, Arlene
Wright-Correll (1935-
), free lance writer, award winning artist and avid gardener is
mother of 5 and the grandmother of 8.
For almost 40 years she was an International real estate
consultant and during the last 20 years of her career traveled to many
parts of the world. She
has been a cancer and stroke survivor since 1992.
While working and raising her children she had many hobbies
including being a very serious home-vintner for approximately 14 years
while residing in upstate New York in St. Lawrence County producing
2,000 to 3,000 bottles of wine a year.
She was the president of the St. Lawrence County chapter of the
American Wine Society in
"Tread the Earth Lightly" & in the meantime
may your day be filled with... Peace, Light, and Love, Arlene Wright-Correll www.learn-america.com |
