Heating setting empty house Jan and Feb

[cliffords]

We will be away most of Jan and Feb in Spain.
Leaving our house in Southern UK for that period. Grown up kids will drop in every so often .

What would you do with heating. Gas CH basic thermostat control. Timer etc in cupboard. No Hive or fancy stuff. Bungalow, decent insulation, double glazing etc .

I guess I leave it on and set temp to ??
Or timed once a day ?

Don't know what to do ,any advice. Turn off water? Lights on timers. We have alarms and security cameras. Heating is my question. Any views welcome please.

[generationx]

I suffered a catastrophic water leak due to a failed connection in frosty conditions. Turn the water off. It won’t take long to heat up etc when you return.

[egomeister]

When I used to work away (with night storage heating) I'd just guess a fairly low level and be done with it. For gas, I think I'd aim for something like 10 degrees just to give you some headroom over freezing.

If you are concerned pick up some cheap wifi temp sensors so you can monitor it and ask the kids to adjust it when they visit.

[Slow.Patrol]

generationx said:

I suffered a catastrophic water leak due to a failed connection in frosty conditions. Turn the water off. It won t take long to heat up etc when you return.

Also check you insurance

We have a holiday let that has to be maintained at 15° in the winter or the water turned off.

We turn the water off. Although, you may find the heating is on a separate system..

[Magooagain]

Turn water off , drain toilet and leave taps open and plug in a couple of oil filled rads set at a low temp.

[Portofino]

I’d leave it at 17 degrees tick over. Have had experience of heating off, a cold spell, & burst pipes in the loft. Not good.

[cliffords]

17 , I only have it at that now
Did you do constant 17 or timed ?

[sherman]

I would turn the thermostat down to 8c with no timer.
Make sure all windows, curtains/blinds, internal and external doors and vents are shut to retain the heat.
Seal off any heat sinks like conservatries with a curtain or blind if they dont have a door
Set up a side light with a low power LED bulb to come on when you are usually about in the room you are known to frequent. A clockwork timer that goes in the plug is less than £10
Turn off the water and drain the taps. Remember to turn off the outside tap too.
Turn off all plugs apart from essential ones like fridge freezer and sky box etc.

[Portofino]

cliffords said:

17 , I only have it at that now
Did you do constant 17 or timed ?

Fair point, this was a 60’s bungalow with a shot roof & the boiler in the loft. Cold snap & the pipes feeding the boiler burst peeing water into 3 rooms below.

If it was ticking over this wouldn’t have happened.

[markymarkthree]

Tweek your insurance. Most policies only allow the house to be empty for 30 days. We changed ours to 60 days.

[cliffords]

Already spoken to insurance. As long as house is visited once a week we are covered for up to 90 days . We can prove/ verify via our cameras.

[swanseaboydan]

For me, 2 months away I would :
Clear all the gullies / drainage points of leaves etc and dig out any dirt.
Inside: water off, heating on constant at about 12 degrees.
Get someone to have a look in once a fortnight .
Remove valuables like jewellery

[alscar]

cliffords said:

Already spoken to insurance. As long as house is visited once a week we are covered for up to 90 days . We can prove/ verify via our cameras.

And did they mention degrees of heat being maintained during your absence ?

[phumy]

I used to work overseas and was sometimes away for over 6 months, i used to turn the stat down to 7 DegC, i also have Hive fitted so i could watch my house temperature from work. On really cold days the heating would cut in at 7 and out again around 8.5 DegC, i could watch it on the Hive App. On the day before i arrived home, i would adjust the stat back up to 21 DegC and get the hot water to heat too. Worked perfect for me every time.

[Slow.Patrol]

One thing to be aware of is water pipes in the loft.

Thanks to increasing loft insulation, pipes in the roof space can easily freeze especially if the water is not kept flowing.

My nephew works in insurance and is seeing a rise in claims over recent years.

[MattyD803]

Slow.Patrol said:

One thing to be aware of is water pipes in the loft.

Thanks to increasing loft insulation, pipes in the roof space can easily freeze especially if the water is not kept flowing.

My nephew works in insurance and is seeing a rise in claims over recent years.

Great point...we have had this previously. The key here is isolating the mains incoming water supply, draining down the cold water supply, flushing toilets etc to leave the system 'empty' - downstairs taps left open. )Remind the kids when visiting that they won't have any water or flushable toilets, unless they want to go through the whole drain down process again).

Heating wise, I would be looking at a setting at 12-14 degrees minimum, for fabric protection really and reducing risk of any condensation/dampness etc.

Lights on basic mechanical timers.

[98elise]

As others have said, turn water off. Someone I know came back from months away to a flooded house.

My neighbour also used to spend winters in Spain, and would leave his heating off and just let the frost stat deal with sub zero temperatures. We had a key and would turn the heating on 2 days before he came back. That was enought to properly warm the house.

Personally I would leave it on but set it very low, with an oil rad as a back up.

[Inbox]

One thing to think about is how everything responds to a power cut, when the power comes back on does everything sort its self out, re-connect to the internet, etc without human intervention?

[cliffords]

Thanks all for the suggestions . The house will get a visit once a week for definite and I have taken on all the advice , thank you .
Today its the same temp here as in Malaga right now !!

[Wombat3]

Much better for the building and its contents to maintain a relatively constant temperature of 12-15 degrees.

Id look into getting some smart heating controls so that you can monitor it remotely. Tado etc.

As others have said, clear gutters & leave lights with low wattage LEDs on timers before you go.

Cost of keeping it on at low level will be pretty inconsequential.