Lived in upstate NY for 46 years, would have a week or two just about every Jan. or Feb. with -45° below zero weather, plus big snowstorms before and after (lake effect). Of course, you'd have to plug your car in at night to even hope it would start, use 5 wt oil so it wouldn't gum up, using a radiator recirculating pump to keep the block warm enough to turn over. Then, if you were lucky enough to get your car started, you'd have to let it warm up enough to melt the ice off the windshield INSIDE plus start to thaw what was on the outside too. (when you'd first get in your car to crank it over, you'd notice something else - the seat is frozen solid like a big block of ice! Once started and you're creaking down the road, you feel youself slowly sinking into it as it unthaws, only to freeze up again the next night, lol!) You didn't take too long at anywhere you'd go because your car would cool off too much and wouldn't start (no place to plug it in at the grocery store or doctor's office, lol!). And, like most high level systems it's preceded by a low level front that will usually dump a few feet of snow on you, so the next day it's clear and bright while you're cleaning out the driveway and sidewalks, and cold as the arctic too, chapping the crap out of your face.
For pipe protection we used Frostex II, a blue wire that you could wrap and cross-wrap around your pipes and plug in, then insulate, to keep them from freezing. Don't know if that's still the heat tape of choice now or not. Unlike regular heat tapes, they could not overlap and could start fires if you weren't careful whereas the Frostex II was so much safer.
For pipe protection we used Frostex II, a blue wire that you could wrap and cross-wrap around your pipes and plug in, then insulate, to keep them from freezing. Don't know if that's still the heat tape of choice now or not. Unlike regular heat tapes, they could not overlap and could start fires if you weren't careful whereas the Frostex II was so much safer.
