Winterising an empty property

moneysavinghero

fishpond said:

Gas central heating---I am unlikely/unwilling  to leave this running.

You don't have to actually leave the heating running. Just have the thermostat turned right down to its lowest setting - the boiler will only fire up if its needed. Will hardly ever go cold enough to be needed anyway, especially if its a well insulated house.

Smodlet

Yes, we are talking 5 degrees C or so, OP.  It will cost pennies if it costs anything:  Most occupied houses never drop below about 15.  So long as the property is not allowed to freeze and the outside pipes are lagged, AFAIK, your insurance company should be satisfied.

knightstyle

We have done this several times over the years.  Best thing we found was to leave the heating on all the time but set the room thermostat to about 4degrees this will avoid frost damage and will cost very little in gas.  Make sure the loft tanks are well lagged with no lagging under them.  Switch water off at the meter as if there is a leak between the meter and your stop c+ck you will have to pay for the water lost.
We also had a neighbour come round every week or so to make sure all was OK.
Alarms and lights on time switches are also a good idea.

Thrugelmir

moneysavinghero said:

fishpond said:

Gas central heating---I am unlikely/unwilling  to leave this running.

You don't have to actually leave the heating running. Just have the thermostat turned right down to its lowest setting - the boiler will only fire up if its needed. Will hardly ever go cold enough to be needed anyway, especially if its a well insulated house.

Over the course of autumn/winter the fabric of the building will become progressively colder. As has been said earlier. Damp as well. Closing the curtains will help in retaining some warmth.

moneysavinghero

Thrugelmir said:

moneysavinghero said:

fishpond said:

Gas central heating---I am unlikely/unwilling  to leave this running.

You don't have to actually leave the heating running. Just have the thermostat turned right down to its lowest setting - the boiler will only fire up if its needed. Will hardly ever go cold enough to be needed anyway, especially if its a well insulated house.

Over the course of autumn/winter the fabric of the building will become progressively colder. As has been said earlier. Damp as well. Closing the curtains will help in retaining some warmth.

From experience, i left a house unoccupied over Autumn / Winter and never had any problems with it at all. And that was back when there were some pretty cold nights, not the mild winters we get now.

brianposter

Mousetraps ?

Vasquez65

Unoccupied house insurance stipulates heating must be set to at least 12 degrees.
It’s also double the cost of ‘normal’  buildings insurance,  I paid more for my late Father’s empty house than for buildings + contents with our house.

Thrugelmir

moneysavinghero said:

Thrugelmir said:

moneysavinghero said:

fishpond said:

Gas central heating---I am unlikely/unwilling  to leave this running.

You don't have to actually leave the heating running. Just have the thermostat turned right down to its lowest setting - the boiler will only fire up if its needed. Will hardly ever go cold enough to be needed anyway, especially if its a well insulated house.

Over the course of autumn/winter the fabric of the building will become progressively colder. As has been said earlier. Damp as well. Closing the curtains will help in retaining some warmth.

From experience, i left a house unoccupied over Autumn / Winter and never had any problems with it at all. And that was back when there were some pretty cold nights, not the mild winters we get now.

Who knows what weather we might get until it arrives. Is it worth the risk that's the bottom line. 

macman

All modern boilers and programmers have a frost stat setting, normally set at a default of around 10C. Leave that on and it should be fine as long as the cold water tank and associated pipework is protected. If pipes are going to freeze, that is the most likely area.

Mutton_Geoff

I've been on this forum for many many years and I have never read so much twaddle as seen in this thread.

You don't need antifreeze in the toilet, any water that freezes there will expand and move around in open space, no harm done, it's only water that freezes/expands in closed spaces (pipes) that causes damage. Boiler frost stats protect the boiler, not all the heating pipes full of water. The water pipes also need protecting (either lagging or heating them). The room stat needs to be a decent temperature like 10-15 degrees, not single digits else parts of the house away from the boiler can still fall below freezing.

Turning off the water main yet leaving the heating turned on is madness.

As others have said though, what do your insurers require? I'm covering an empty property pending executors sale at the moment. The insurers want the gas/elec and water turning off despite it still being autumn and I mentioned to them that without electricity the burglar alarm and timer lights would stop working. They still insisted.