A bit of advice please

thestens

Soon to be moving to a new to us house( The house was actually built 1830 - stone 650mm thick walls). Its in North Pennine area. With no gas supply.
It at present is heated by a multifuel stove which supplies the central heating and hot water. There is a very efficient immersion heater( so says the owner) for hot water when stove not going.
It also has a central heating system ( calibrated and balanced for either oil fired boiler or air source heat pump) but no boiler or heat pump.
We will be moving in at the beginning of March and intend to use the existing system for a year to see how it goes.
We do though go away for extended periods of time.( upto 5 weeks in Feb/March time).
So what measures should we take to prevent frost damage to the pipes. It has been suggested to have a night storage radiator or two installed. There are the oil/gel filled radiators as an option.
Or would it be sensible just to drain the systems while we are away( and how big a job is that)?
Advice please

paulsad

I wouldn't think draining the system would be a good/viable idea. Proper lagging of pipes will be important and maybe as you suggest just some background heating on a low setting would be good, time switched or some other.

paulsad

ps I do turn off my cold water (as long as it doesn't compromise your particular system) if I'm away and leave open a kitchen sink tap - you can have a modern button stop !!!! switch fitted to ease the process.

FR_262

Could you not get your neighbours in to see to the heating for a while each day?

TiredGeek

thestens wrote: »

It also has a central heating system ( calibrated and balanced for either oil fired boiler or air source heat pump) but no boiler or heat pump.

Interesting. That I'd like to see as for the life of me I can't see how it could work with both of those, it must be one or the other as oil will heat the water to about 90'c and an ASHP about 40'c. In other words an ASHP system needs rads about twice the size that oil needs.

If you're worried about freezing pipes for sinks and baths etc then you could drain down the water system, BUT there's a very good chance you won't get all the water out of the pipes as there's bound to be low points that won't drain. These could freeze and burst, and then you'll have a flood when you turn the water back on.
If you're worried about frozen heating pipes there's anti-freeze available to put in the heating system. It's quiet expensive but will stop the freezing if you put enough in.


In the end you'll probably be best with oil filled heaters or similar to supply some low level heating.... problem with that though is if you lose electric for a few days....

thestens

FR_262 wrote: »

Could you not get your neighbours in to see to the heating for a while each day?

There are no neighbours within half a mile!

TiredGeek

thestens wrote: »

There are no neighbours within half a mile!

HEAVEN


If they're anything like mine, you'd not want to give them the keys either...