Editor's Note: The name of an interviewee that was previously misspelled has been corrected.
City Utilities and local plumbing and HVAC companies were kept busy over the holiday weekend, as a winter storm and sub-zero temperatures rocked the Ozarks — and our pipes.
As the snow begins to melt and temperatures begin to rise — for now — winter has barely begun, and lessons learned last week could come in handy ahead of the next winter storm.
The sub-zero wind chills that plunged Springfield into a deadly and bitter winterscape can bring residents a host of problems, some of which are inevitable while others are preventable. Issues can include overheated furnaces, frozen pipes, power outages and water leaks, among other things.
Preparation key for CU, plumbing and HVAC companies
Aware of what was coming, CU and local plumbing and HVAC companies revved up for what ended up being a very busy weekend by holding a number of meetings and ensuring staff was on hand, despite it being a holiday.
“We were kind of ‘all hands on deck,’” said Drew Compton, a spokesperson for Air Services All Service, a heating, cooling and plumbing company based in Springfield. “We knew, going into the weekend, it was going to be very, very busy. So we just kind of cleared the schedule in preparation for a bunch of incoming calls, to try to get to as many people as we possibly can.”
Air Services All Service wasn’t alone in getting ready for a surge in business. All Klear All Hours, another plumbing and HVAC in Springfield, prepared their staff that they would likely find themselves working on or around Christmas due to the demand.
“We got everybody together and we did that multiple times during the week to get everybody pumped up and just to know that even though it was going to be a holiday weekend, we were still going to be really busy,” Barry Bruce said. “And we sure were busy every day this weekend, including Christmas Day.”
Bruce and Compton acknowledged that the surge in business they experience during winter storms such as this inevitably results in a slower response time, even with the added hours and bulked-up staff. However, they said they try their best to get to every caller, although it might be several hours before they’re able to get boots on the ground.
Cara Shaefer, the director of communications and energy services at CU, said they held a company-wide meeting a week before the storm hit, bringing together an entire staff that she said could be thought of as a “small city.”
“From all of our electric generation, transmission and distribution to all of our natural gas operations, water operations, transit, SpringNet and then all of the support services that go into that — fleet, facilities management, communications, just everybody together, all of us in on checking on the status of all of our operations, and the ability to supply all of our workers as needed through these extreme temperatures,” Shaefer said.
Shaefer said that CU receives calls from their utility customers regarding plumbing and HVAC issues that come along with this extreme weather, at which point, depending on the service they need, they advise them to call a contractor.
Even so, CU often has to cooperate with, during extreme weather or not, various contractors across the city.
Preventative measures, maintenance could prevent issues that come with freezing temps
Some of the issues people deal with during extreme cold weather are inevitable. For example, pipes may be more vulnerable and susceptible to freezing when they are on the exterior of a structure.
“It's one of those things you can't always prevent it,” Compton said. “One thing we recommend is making sure your crawl space vents are closed when it gets cold to help prevent it from freezing… Sometimes it's unavoidable, but we try to do everything we can to avoid it.”
Additionally, when a central heating system is essentially running all day long to keep up, it can be at risk of overheating. However, that can also be attributed to how dirty the furnace itself, or its filters are, which may need to be cleaned or replaced.
A common preventative measure, echoed by Bruce, Shaefer and Compton, is leaving the tap dripping (using both the hot and cold faucet levers).
Other steps that can be taken with a small handful of materials, without requiring the hiring of contractors, include:
- Open up cabinet doors under sinks
- Insulate exposed plumbing underneath the structure with foam pipe insulation
- Close up entry points for freezing air (around plumbing, cables that enter home) with foam insulation spray
- Apply weather stripping, foam insulation spray or caulk around doors and windows
Shaefer and Bruce also noted a longer-term, and more expensive measure — adding more insulation to attics, walls and crawl spaces.
It is also important to locate the water main cut-off valve, in the event of an emergency.
When these preventative measures aren’t enough, and plumbing or HVAC companies have to be called, CU has a list of registered contractors. Although not an official endorsement, the listed companies have to meet certain criteria to be registered with CU.
A consequence of the dangerous cold that may not be felt until January, is electric and gas bills. While it became known in September that natural gas costs and prices were climbing, as furnaces worked harder to keep houses warm last week, its result could become more with the next CU bill Springfield residents receive.
For those looking to lower their electric and gas bills, CU offers a handful of options to save money, including rebates and efficiency programs.
