With the frigid temperatures comes the possibility of frozen pipes hanging over Houston homeowners’ heads and the question still stands: Do you drip your faucets? Or not?
The answer is “no” if your water comes from a pumping station (most everyone in Houston).
Conversely, the answer is “yes” if your water comes from a water tower (some areas outside of Houston).
“We don’t advise Houstonians to drip their faucets in the cold. The city of Houston is different from other water utilities across the country, so we need different pressure systems to maintain the water pressure,” Erin Jones, Public Information Officer for Houston Public Works, told Chron during last month’s snowstorm. “It lowers water pressure when we have millions of homes in Houston, so if everybody dripped their faucets, it would pull down the pressure and nobody would get any water pressure.”
The City of Houston’s water is run through pump stations on the ground, not water towers.
HPW instead advises Houston residents to open cabinet doors under sinks next to outside walls, shut off water to washing machines in unheated garages and provide extra protection to pipes that have frozen in the past.
If residents will not be home during the freezing period, HPW advises them to drain outside (not interior) water faucets or leave the home heating system on low.
Houstonians should also wrap outside pipes or pipes in unheated areas in their homes, remove garden hose ties to outdoor spouts and turn off property sprinkler systems.
Landlords are required to maintain rental properties according to the standards outlined in the city code, which reads, “Heating equipment must maintain a minimum inside temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit (measure three feet above the floor) when it is 20 degrees Fahrenheit outside.”