Property Unoccupied Over Winter Months > Central Heating Question

Eldi_Dos

Spare a thought for the security of the house and make it seem inhabited, lamps controlled by timers to go on and off a various times in the morning and evening. Maybe electronically controlled curtains would help with house appearing inhabited and would help with keeping any warmth in .

Troytempest

We are in the South West and regularly go away for 8 weeks - Jan / Feb.

Heating on for 1 hour morning and 90 minutes evening plus froststat on boiler. Neighbour in once a week and all good. Insurance happy with that.

scoot65

chris_n said:

I left my home in the North East unoccupied for many winters. Mains water was turned off. For heating I had a system I could see / control via internet. I left a minimum base temperature of 10 C and regularly checked the temp and gave it a boost as required which was actually very infrequent. 

Again, thanks for the replies.

Chris, can I ask what system did you have wa sit sometjhing like Hive etc.?

 

As mentioned by another poster, I am looking at timer lights. I'm hoping to find a timer light unit that is more robust than the cheap plug in timers from BandQ et al.   

bob_a_builder

Example clauses from the specialist 'un-occupied' insurance we used 

comeandgo

bob_a_builder said:

Example clauses from the specialist 'un-occupied' insurance we used 

I’m looking for insurance for unoccupied property and am interested in what you have but do they actually mean “you must inspect property…..” to be physically you or just a human being under your instruction?

bob_a_builder

Must admit I didn't clarify that with them, to be honest 
but we had a neighbor  ( he was a magistrate, so fairly trustworthy)  do it for us and kept the logs etc

Apodemus

scoot65 said:

chris_n said:

I left my home in the North East unoccupied for many winters. Mains water was turned off. For heating I had a system I could see / control via internet. I left a minimum base temperature of 10 C and regularly checked the temp and gave it a boost as required which was actually very infrequent. 

 

As mentioned by another poster, I am looking at timer lights. I'm hoping to find a timer light unit that is more robust than the cheap plug in timers from BandQ et al.   

I've used the plug in timers from B&Q quite a bit and found them to be pretty reliable.  I have five working at the moment and they are all at least three years old.  These are the electronic ones, rather than the electro-mechanical ones with the timer dial (although I do have one of these that is about 15 years old and still working well).

chris_n

scoot65 said:

chris_n said:

I left my home in the North East unoccupied for many winters. Mains water was turned off. For heating I had a system I could see / control via internet. I left a minimum base temperature of 10 C and regularly checked the temp and gave it a boost as required which was actually very infrequent. 

Again, thanks for the replies.

Chris, can I ask what system did you have wa sit sometjhing like Hive etc.?

 

As mentioned by another poster, I am looking at timer lights. I'm hoping to find a timer light unit that is more robust than the cheap plug in timers from BandQ et al.   

It is an Owl system but hive etc work the same. For timers I use Tapo smart plugs, you can set schedules or schedule according to when sunset is in an app.

Eldi_Dos

I have used the electro-mechanical ones for many years with no problems, just used them for lamps with 3 amp fuses so no great load. Set them to come on quite early well before dusk.

scoot65

Thanks for the additional info. The unoccupied insurance clauses was interesting to read.

The light timers I mentioned were the dial type that you press segments to get the desired timings. Are these what's called electro mechanical? 

I'll also take a look at the electronic ones too.

Thanks again!