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.
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.
He also drilled a very small hole through our wall. Just round enough for a small lamp cord to snuggly fit into the hole.
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.
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.
He has made a similar one with a single 200 watt light bulb ( no 2 nd 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.
