SAN ANTONIO \u2013 With below-freezing temperatures and icy conditions expected to arrive in San Antonio this weekend, there is still time to take simple steps inside and outside your home to avoid costly damage and high energy bills.<\/p>\n
During winter, CPS Energy recommends setting your thermostat to 68 degrees.<\/p>\n
If you still feel cold or notice drafts, before bumping up the thermostat, check your doors and windows to see if air is entering through the sides or the bottom.<\/p>\n
Pulling curtains closed or securing blankets and bed linen to windows could be an option for some people to help reduce the flow of cooler air into their homes.<\/p>\n
Rolling up bath towels or rags and positioning them at the base of windows and doors can also help keep cold air out.<\/p>\n
But running your heating system is not just for your comfort; it also helps keep your pipes from freezing, especially in older homes.<\/p>\n
Curtis Harrell, co-owner of Harrell Commercial Plumbing, explained why that is the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour older homes, where you have pier and beam foundations instead of a concrete slab, you want to open the cabinets under the sinks to let that warm air circulates in there,\u201d Harrell said.<\/p>\n
This helps keep pipes from being exposed to freezing temperatures for prolonged periods, which he said can sometimes damage them.<\/p>\n
Harrell said that having warm air circulate in kitchen and bathroom cabinets is usually not an issue in newer homes because pipes are typically insulated when newer homes are built.<\/p>\n
Letting your kitchen and bathroom sink faucets drip during the night is another thing older homeowners could do.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as the water is moving, it has a lot harder time freezing,\u201d Harrell said.<\/p>\n
Besides protecting indoor pipes, Harrell said homeowners should also care for outside water faucets, also known as hose bibs.<\/p>\n
He suggested using either a faucet cover, a bib cover, or a freeze miser.<\/p>\n
Before using any of these, disconnect the hose from the faucet.<\/p>\n
A loop is attached to the faucet cover. Place the loop around the entire part of the handle hardware that you actually use to turn the water on and off.<\/p>\n
Harrell said you should then grab the elastic, bungee-like strings coming out from one end, and a little button.<\/p>\n
While holding the strings, he said to press or hold down the button at the same time, position the faucet cover over the entire faucet fixture, and continue pulling until the faucet cover is flush or snugly touching the wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour hose bib is insulated from those freezing temperatures,\u201d Harrell said.<\/p>\n
If you plan to use a freezer miser, after disconnecting the water hose itself, he instructs just securely screwing the freezer miser in the same way you would connect the water hose to the faucet.<\/p>\n
After that, he said, \u201cYou would actually turn on your faucet all the way. When the freezing temperature does occur, the valve inside the device will open up and allow water to come out, because moving water doesn\u2019t freeze.\u201d<\/p>\n
But if you do not have or cannot get either of these items, he said you would disconnect the water hose and wrap a bath towel or rags around the faucet, using tape to secure it.<\/p>\n
Outside water infrastructures also include water sprinkler systems.<\/p>\n
Anne Hayden with the San Antonio Water Systems said those with water sprinkler systems should check whether the backflow device on the system has a cover.<\/p>\n
This device is usually located in an area of the yard where the ground has been hauled out. The backflow device is connected to existing embedded hardware in the ground.<\/p>\n
The hull-out area of the yard where this is located can have a removable cover over it.<\/p>\n
Hayden said this device could freeze if the area is left uncovered. If you do not have a cover for the area, she suggested using old rags to cover all the exposed hardware of this device.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis ground underneath doesn\u2019t freeze,\u201d Hayden said. \u201cIt\u2019s just the air that you have to worry about.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said above-ground sprinkler heads should be covered as well, because they usually have a reservoir of water inside that could freeze and cause them to split.<\/p>\n
\u201cTake insulation, that you can get at any hardware store,\u201d Hayden said. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to cut it, size it to fit, and you just wrap it around it.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of her biggest tips: make sure your sprinkler system is off.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t need to be watering your grass right now anyway, turn off your sprinkler system so they aren\u2019t running,\u201d Hayden said.<\/p>\n
These steps can help you get through the cold temperatures, but you may also need the number of a licensed plumber on hand just in case.<\/p>\n
Read also: <\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 With below-freezing temperatures and icy conditions expected to arrive in San Antonio this weekend, there…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,201463,451,3,201462,6999,201461,452,453,171964],"class_list":["post-422242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-cps-energy","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-plumbing","tag-san-antonio","tag-saws","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-winter-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}