Now, there's a good photo. *Brrr!*

I don't know what's wrong with the heating where I live. The regular heat doesn't work but 'emergency' does.

Oh, that's right! Some people live where it gets cold. I'm just north of Tampa, and around here, "frickin' cold" is a 55-degree day. It does occasionally dip below freezing at night, but never for more than a few hours.

Aw, pestie, I've almost forgotten what 55 degrees feels like. :-(

I'd love to see 55 degrees, it was -1 when I was shoveling the driveway this morning.

Cold air drafts: Caulk gaps in windows and doors or add weather stripping

When I got up this morning someone was working on our front door, doing this. The front door was letting in a monster draft, but the weather stripping is in and no more draft.

Pestie: I'm going to Florida in a month, and I can't wait. These last few days have been miserable.

Mr. Propagation:

It's likely that you have a heat pump. A heat pump works by extracting heat from the outside air and moving it into your house.

When outdoor temperatures drop below about 38 degrees, there isn't much heat to be extracted, and the heat pump isn't much good. That's when the "emergency" heat kicks in: a set of inefficient (but powerful) heating coils, like in a hair dryer.

I dunno why they call it "emergency." I would think "expensve" would be a more accurate label.

for personal heating and warmth, may i make the suggestion my grandmother made to me on the phone the other day:
hot water bottle(s).
sure, i looked like an old lady, but damn did that warm my feet up nice.

Perhaps I'm crazy.. but when you are not home why keep your house at 65 degrees? That's a tad high. I keep my house now at 65 degrees and I AM home.

Also, you can use your oven if it's electric, those generally do not give of carbon monoxide.

If my pipes are freezing I don't know what I am too keen on wrapping WATER around them. Hot water on a rag cools fast and creates more ice. I might start with increasing the ambient temps around the pipes first.

Horray for entertaining pictures!! Keep 'em coming! These corporate logos and boring ol' screenshots are getting old. Bring back the funny!

I agree with LTS. The last thing you want to do with a frozen pipe is put hot wet towels around it. Growing up in Alaska where freezing pipes are the norm, opening the cabinet doors and letting warm air circulate will allow the pipe to unfreeze slowly without breaking it.

One important point to keep in mind is that just because your house might have a fireplace, that doesn't mean it's all ready for you to load it up with wood and spark it up. The flues may have been shut long ago, and fireplaces in many older houses may well have been sealed up by previous owners, so you should first make sure that any smoke will indeed go up and out, rather than into your lungs and upholstery.

You know, it looks like the person in this picture is shoveling yet mysteriously his shovel has dissappeared just before scooping that first pile of snow. Damn gremlins.

You forgot the last option: Move someplace warmer ( I keep thinking I should take that advice).

Don't worry. Everywhere will be warm soon enough...