Hose hookup / prevent freezing

[donchanger]

I am on a dead well (redevelopment attempted, no success), waiting for a new one to be drilled. Waiting period in our area is roughly 4-6 weeks.

In the meantime, we are attached to a neighbor's house via several garden hoses. This works fine (after a while on a dying well, it has been great!).

Until yesterday... when temps dropped to 12 degrees. We left a faucet running a small but steady stream (not just drips) but I guess it wasn't enough and in the morning we had 300' of frozen hose and no water in the house.

I ran new hoses so we could have water in the house but wonder how much water to run overnight to try to prevent freezing. Is there a way to figure this out? I suppose I could just leave it running full force but that seems wasteful of my neighbor's water and not too healthy for my septic.

Actually, I'd prefer to install a timer-controlled valve that would just run the water full force for 60 seconds every 5-10 minutes but the timers I have found are for gardens and won't run more often than every 6 hours or so.

Is there something else we should be thinking?

Thanks.

 

[Craigpump]

Put heat tape on the hoses then put tarps over the hoses then line up bales of hay over the tarps. That will help hold the heat in and help prevent freezing.