Snowbirds, Save Money: Winterize Your Mobile Home when You Head South
If you live in a standard brick and stick home, you have no option but to leave the furnace operational through the winter. Beyond frozen plumbing you have the foundation, the basement the part of the structure that’s encased in frozen dirt to consider. Without heat the power of frost can easily destroy cinder block walls and concrete floors that support your home.
Many snowbirds chose to down size their northern summer residence, selling off their Mc Mansion and opting for a mobile home located in a retirement community. Beyond having a much smaller place to maintain and reduced day to day living expenses, they have the distinct advantage that with proper preparation a mobile home can be left unheated without damage through the winter.
By eliminating the cost of all utilities while they’re gone for the winter, many times this can make the difference when budgeting annual living expenses.
Preparing to shut down a mobile home for a long winter requires draining all the water from the plumbing. Though this will take some effort, it’s not technically difficult. Mobile homes have a water shut off located where the water pipe comes out of the ground. Close to that shut off on the mobile home side a faucet needs to be installed that will allow you to hook up a garden hose. This will be your access point both for draining water and for applying compressed air to evacuate the water system. The step by step process to winterize your mobile home must be followed in the order listed. Failure to follow this guideline may result in damage or fire.
1. Shut off the water valve at ground level.
2. Shut off the source of heat to the water heater. Flip the breaker Off on electric models, turn off the Gas for other models.
3. Open a faucet to bleed off water pressure. Leave it open for now.
4. Hook up a garden hose to the water heater drain outlet and drain the water heater.
5. Hook up a garden hose to the faucet near the water shut off valve and drain what ever water will run out.
6. Shut the faucet you left open to bleed off water pressure.
7. Connect an air hose from a regulated air compressor set at 10 psi to the faucet near the water shut off.
8. Once air pressure has stabilized go through the mobile home opening one faucet at a time and draining the water until only air is coming out. Close the faucet and move to the next faucet. Be sure to do this to both cold and hot faucets. Don’t forget the shower, and the water hook ups for the cloths washer. You will also need to pull the cloths washer away from the wall and drain the water that is trapped within it into a pan too.
9. Flush the toilet until all water is drained from the tank and nothing but air is coming in.
10. Don’t forget exterior water faucets, they need to be drained too. Once your certain that every outlet for water has been drained and your only getting air you can disconnect the air compressor.
If you do a complete job of blowing the water out of your water system there is no need to pump antifreeze through the pipes. Without water there is nothing to freeze.
The next step is to go through the house and pour a cup or so of RV antifreeze into all the drains. The toilet will require a larger dose as there is a good amount of water still in the bowl. If you take a plunger you can pump some of the residual water down the pipe before you pour in the antifreeze lessening the amount you will need to properly protect the toilet from freezing.
Preparing the remainder of your mobile home for winter storage should include removing any food products that may freeze, emptying the refrigerator and leaving the doors propped open, and unplugging all electrical devices.
Keep in mind that cleaning products under the sink as well as in a utility room can freeze and burst as well.
This is a project that will take some time and demands a thorough and safety minded approach. Anything that gets forgotten can create quite a mess and do serious damage. The main motivator making this a worthwhile effort is the cost of energy. By taking a day out of your winter escape you can save thousands of dollars in wasted electricity, and natural gas.
One final concern, the water line where the pressure is shut off under your mobile home. It still has pressure on the under ground side of the valve. Depending on how deep frost will penetrate in your area of the country this part of the water line must still be protected. With a heat tape extending down into the ground coming up only to the shut off valve and wrapping the area with insulation you can keep heat applied to the portion of your water line that still has water pressure.
It’s important that no heat tape be energized from the shut off valve to the mobile home as without water in the line you have a good probability of causing a fire.
