Winterising an empty property

Cash-Cows

When I when I left a house unoccupied over winter I left the heating on but very low. 

What was most shocking is what isn't covered by the insurance once I told them. 

Basically there was no cover for anything. 

greatcrested

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.

which simply proves that disaster does not strike everyone, every time!

I've been driving a car regularly for 40 odd years and never had an accident. That does not mean I won't have one in future, or that other people havent had accidents during that time.

Hence the need for insurance, regular car maintenance and other cautionary measures like wearing a seat belt.

kinger101

Mutton_Geoff said:

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 house 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.

You might think the antifreeze is twaddle, but I can assure you a plumber who drained my parents house did precisely that.  

You're right that most insurance policies will require around 12 C for a vacant property (the loft space potentially containing a water tank will be much cooler).  But leaving the water switched on won't top up a closed system.  That has to be done manually via a filling loop.

knightstyle

To those who think a toilet is OK in a freezing house, the bowl and the cistern both cracked in our old outside toilet when we had a very cold winter, around 1996 I think, That was the only toilet we had and the water pipe to it was frozen up for months.  Those were real winters it went down to -14c !!

kinger101

knightstyle said:

To those who think a toilet is OK in a freezing house, the bowl and the cistern both cracked in our old outside toilet when we had a very cold winter, around 1996 I think, That was the only toilet we had and the water pipe to it was frozen up for months.  Those were real winters it went down to -14c !!

Only an outside toilet in 1996!  Did you have loo roll at least or were you using yesterday's newspaper?

macman

kinger101 said:

Mutton_Geoff said:

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 house 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.

You might think the antifreeze is twaddle, but I can assure you a plumber who drained my parents house did precisely that.  

You're right that most insurance policies will require around 12 C for a vacant property (the loft space potentially containing a water tank will be much cooler).  But leaving the water switched on won't top up a closed system.  That has to be done manually via a filling loop.

If there is a filling loop, it's a combi boiler and there won't be a loft water tank.
With a combi, the supply side pipework is much less vulnerable (unless it's mounted in the loft or garage), and the frost 'stat will normally provide adequate protection.

macman

knightstyle said:

To those who think a toilet is OK in a freezing house, the bowl and the cistern both cracked in our old outside toilet when we had a very cold winter, around 1996 I think, That was the only toilet we had and the water pipe to it was frozen up for months.  Those were real winters it went down to -14c !!

To state the obvious, your toilet wasn't in the house, it was outside...

moneysavinghero

knightstyle said:

To those who think a toilet is OK in a freezing house, the bowl and the cistern both cracked in our old outside toilet when we had a very cold winter, around 1996 I think, That was the only toilet we had and the water pipe to it was frozen up for months.  Those were real winters it went down to -14c !!

Outside toilet and inside are two different things. My dad always used to leave a paraffin lamp burning in the outside toilet whenever the temp was cold (dont worry, we had inside bathroom too).

Nebulous2

We have a holiday house which is insured with Direct Line. Our policy says from the 1st of October to the 31st of March the house needs to be heated to 5 degrees centigrade or the water supply turned off and the heating / water system drained. 

We heat it to 7 degrees centigrade using a Hive system to give a small margin of error. With the internal doors left open the temperature is stable throughout the house. 

As an aside - we replaced our boiler in our main home about 4 years ago and decided to keep our hot water cylinder. Our new boiler isn’t a combi, but is still fed with a loop. 

kinger101

macman said:

kinger101 said:

Mutton_Geoff said:

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 house 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.

You might think the antifreeze is twaddle, but I can assure you a plumber who drained my parents house did precisely that.  

You're right that most insurance policies will require around 12 C for a vacant property (the loft space potentially containing a water tank will be much cooler).  But leaving the water switched on won't top up a closed system.  That has to be done manually via a filling loop.

If there is a filling loop, it's a combi boiler and there won't be a loft water tank.
With a combi, the supply side pipework is much less vulnerable (unless it's mounted in the loft or garage), and the frost 'stat will normally provide adequate protection.

I never stated that a closed system would be fed by a loft tank.