Heating while away

lovemilk

What settings and how ofter would you select your heating to come on while you are away in the winter?

I can only set the boiler to come on at certain times. Select one temp on my rom thermstat and manually control the radiators.

pothole50

Depends how long you are away for, and how well your pipes are lagged.

penrhyn

Set the room stat to 5 degrees, if you have tanks in the loft leave the hatch open a little, set the heating to be on continuously.

HappyMJ

lovemilk wrote: »

What settings and how ofter would you select your heating to come on while you are away in the winter?

I can only set the boiler to come on at certain times. Select one temp on my rom thermstat and manually control the radiators.

I would turn everything as low as it can go. Turn the thermostat right down and turn each radiator down to the frost setting or off. I would time the heating to come on for a few hours in the evening and if it's going to snow and be very cold i.e less than zero during the day then turn it on 24/7.

Personally though if away for more than a week then I'd just turn everything off including the cold water mains tap and turn on the mini oil filled electric radiator on it's lowest setting and put it in the kitchen to keep the cold water mains pipe unfrozen. You only need to then keep just the cold water mains pipe just above freezing and open the remainder of the taps to let some water through.

Cardew

Agree with the above, set the thermostat really low 5C or 10C and have the heating on 24/7.

I have an annex that is rarely used(no cavity walls) and even through the very coldest periods last winter it was fine and used very little gas.

tim9966

I was away for a couple of days last week. Mine was set at 7C and doesn't appear to have needed to cut in. It was 9C inside when I got home.

macman

A modern boiler or programmer will have a frost stat fitted that will cut in anyway, the default setting is usually 5C on the CH flow circuit.

lovemilk

I never thought to turn the heating this low to be honest. I have got a bit of mould at the mo that needs to be sorted in the New Year. Would you really turn the heating off/low/on frost control? Won't this promote damp and create cold??

Thank you ever so much

Cardew

lovemilk wrote: »

I never thought to turn the heating this low to be honest. I have got a bit of mould at the mo that needs to be sorted in the New Year. Would you really turn the heating off/low/on frost control? Won't this promote damp and create cold??

Thank you ever so much

Dampness isn't a function of the house getting cold.

If you have mould it is a ventlation problem. Mould is a far bigger problem in tropical climates where the room can get to 30C.

There is no reason why a properly ventilated house couldn't be left to go to minus 20c without mould appearing(obviously all water must be drained). i.e. the cold doesn't promote dampness. - did you see the recent video of Scott of the Antartic's base camp building? It is 100 years old, unheated and no sign of damp.

HappyMJ

lovemilk wrote: »

I never thought to turn the heating this low to be honest. I have got a bit of mould at the mo that needs to be sorted in the New Year. Would you really turn the heating off/low/on frost control? Won't this promote damp and create cold??

Thank you ever so much

The damp has to come from somewhere and it's usually from the occupants showering, bathing, cooking and just being in the house. Ventilation will reduce damp so if the windows have vents then open them all up and whenever bathing or cooking put the exhaust fan on.