Since our house is super insulated, the heating requirements are easily met by our little woodstove and a wall mounted propane heater. The coldest night we have had thus far was about 20 degrees, and the house only dropped from 64 degrees to 58 degrees overnight. A morning fire with 4 small pieces of pine brings the temp up to 68 degrees in the course of an hour.
Unfortunately, I was stymied in my GRAND PLAN by the burdensome state of New Mexico housing permit requirements. My original plan for the water system was this: Solar pump brings water to a buried cistern. Hand pump bring the water from the cistern to the surface. Jill carries the water from the pump house to the residence. :D The type of hand pump I bought allowed the water to drop back down to a frost free depth between uses.
Sadly, the state would not permit our house without hot and cold running water. To this end, the builder installed a pressure tank in the pump house, and a propane water heater in the garage. Now I have to admit, it HAS been nice being able to turn on a faucet and get water, but the placement of the pressure tank and the water heater cause concern with the approach of the cold weather. The builder would say things like "the only thing I am worried about is the feed line from the pressure tank freezing up" "if we insulate it, it SHOULD be alright". Or the propane guy: "the heater unit SHOULD be alright here, it gets some heat from the house" "these lines are not SUPPOSED to break if they freeze".
The advice of the guy who did the wiring for the pressure tank was to build a footing around the pump house shed to keep the cold from bleeding in underneath, and to rig a heat lamp near the pressure tank itself (actually he said ideally the pressure tank should have been installed in the garage, but whatever). He suggested a cinder block footing, but I decided to use the free building materials I had at my disposal.
I insulated around the pressure tank itself and bought a small heat lamp that could be directed at the most vulnerable parts of the system. I also bought little battery operated thermometers to keep track of the temps.
For the propane water heater, I built a little insulated booth out of foamboard, and moved a bunch of water storage in as an emergency water supply if the pipes froze, but also as a heat sink.
As an additional measure if we run into one of the REALLY cold spells that the locals like to prophesy every chance they get ("I remember back in the 70s it was 35 below zero for a WEEK!") I bought 2 indoor rated portable propane heaters and hooked them up to 40lb bottles. There is one in the pump house and one in the garage.
I realize that all of my planning may still be to no avail, so I did locate the buried cistern and I purchased a marine bilge pump so I can access that supply of water if the pipes leading to the house freeze up.
I did make a collar and a cover so I could back fill and insulate the cistern opening from the cold as well.
In the end, I am hoping we will do ok through the cold winter months. Time will tell. If I had to do it all over, I think I would have just passed on having the building permitted (there are tons of rural folks living in uninspected dwellings out here) and rolled the dice on living without homeowner's insurance.
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