Cold Weather Precautions

Cold Weather Precautions
There will always be the occasional day when cold stops play - if the water is freezing on the windows it may be time to go home and have a hot drink! However there are steps you can take to help prevent this happening on all but the coldest days.

Generally if you can keep the van warm enough overnight the system will be operational during the day. A greenhouse heater or a small fan heater on a thermostat in the van over night will ensure that your tank of water is well above freezing and all of your pipes and pumps are fully operational. Keep the poles inside (or in the heated van) overnight and drain the pole hose of water at the end of the working day. Starting from this point it would take a very cold day to prevent you from working as about the only thing that can then happen is the water can freeze in the microbore as it lays on the ground - this will only happen though if you run it out and do not start using it straight away.

The above points apply even if using a hot water system as these can still freeze solid in the van overnight and if not thawed out can cause very expensive damage. In this cold weather if using a hot system make sure that you turn down the temperature by at least 10-20 degrees as the glass will be a lot colder than normal and the sudden temperature change can crack the glass.

If using an RO based system then ensure that it is fully insulated as freezing will ruin the membranes and may crack the housing.

If working in areas where the water will run off the windows and across public footpaths then ensure that you spread some rock salt or similar over the area.

Cold Weather Precautions