Could wind chill freeze the water system?

[D3B]

Dont drain down the boat as she is usually on the water with heaters in engine room and cabin throughout the winter....
but she is on the hard this weekend while the legs are serviced, so I suspect no shore power attached thus no leccy to run the heaters

Forecast is for some nasty cold weather with wind chill of around -6 C

Could that cause damage to water systems on the boat?

 

[Bandit]

Worry about the actual temperature not the wind chill.

Wind chill is how the temperature feels colder due to humidity and wind speed , this alone will not freeze water unless the real temperature is already below zero celsius.

I would not worry about it being below freezing overnight by a few degrees either. It would need to be more sustained than that.

 

[sarabande]

No.

Wind chill is a complicated formula of air temperature and wind speed, designed to show their effect on the human body's thermal regulation system.

If the air temp is +3, then no matter how strong the wind, then an inanimate object will only be chilled to +3. It cannot go lower.

(This is for an an enclosed system or object, and not the same as wind blowing over an open bucket of water, where evaporation can induce freezing. The same for damp or wet clothing, where winds speeed can exacerbate heat loss.)

 

[David_J]

Agree fully, but I had a problem with wind (oooops sorry) not wind chill.
Our boat stays in the water over the winter so I dont have too many fears about the domestic water system freezing unless it is really extreme weather but I did get a freeze up a few years ago on a freezing night in April. The boat on the finger next to us had been moved and a strong SW was blowing freezing cold air straight into the engine bay air vents down the side of the boat and Mr Murpphy's law says that there is a domestic water pipe not far from the vent in the engine bay. Frozen pipe. So now we just close off the vents in Winter (except when boating obviously!!) No more freeze ups.

 

[Argonautical]

Hi Dougie,

as you know being something of a new comer to this my opinion will be based on 'Bollox' really................

BUT............Pipedreams been on 'HARD' for about 9 flippin weeks now waiting for the 'Manyarna Brigade' to fullfill some tasks............. I have had a tube heater in the engine, at night, and the internal water system..........'TANK', drained down, and no probs that Im yet to be made aware of have appeared.

Should be alringht chap!

Jas.

P.S. Chelsea were crap werent thay???