Good point about the pipes. The house next to mine had a pipe burst sometime over the past week. Unfortuneatley, it wasn't discovered until yesterday. <img src="images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> The pipe that failed was attached to an outside spigot which is why it froze (according to the plumber). The amazing thing is that the thermostat was set at 65 degrees. This was sufficient to heat the room but not the pipe. The other contributing factor (again, per the plumber) was that no water was moving through the house. The lessons learned were to keep the thermostat up and have a faucet or two trickling water.

BTW: In my neighborhood it is quite common to lose power when its very windy or there is a an accumulation of ice. If either of these conditions are forecast I crank up the electric heat in order to bank as much time as possible if the lights go out.

Chris