Turning off Heating whilst away for long periods?

Leodogger

I have been told by my heating engineer to turn my radiator stats down to the Frost setting and the boiler has a Frost stat anyway which protests it from freezing but both my bathroom and hall heaters don't have frost settings (the bathroom one is a chrome ladder rad!) and the hall one is the first off the system which stays on constantly.    Do I still have to leave my room thermostat to bring the heating on to 7c as recommended by heating experts as a minimum ?   Also does turning off the stop tap in your house affect whatever heating you leave on?  I am confused!    We are due to be away for 3 months.

CKhalvashi

When away (admittedly not for 3 months at a time), I set mine to about 15 degrees to come on for an hour overnight and an hour in the day with associated radiators. This should be enough to stop pipes from freezing which would be very expensive.

I don't believe the stopcock would affect it but it may be boiler specific. We occasionally have to top the boiler up with water which definitely is done manually.

comeandgo

What does your house insurer say about temperature in an empty property.  Our previous insurer wanted temp left at 12 degrees, the one we are with now requires 15 set for 24 hours if property empty between the months of November and April.

CKhalvashi

Follow the recommendations of your insurer. We are mid-terrace and the house is well insulated (but also Victorian, so quite old), so doesn't often get really cold, I'm not sure it has much of an effect anyway but you won't have the heat from cooking/electronics/etc.'

Edit: I thought the reply above was from the OP

Leodogger

Just renewed my home insurance and they said just to ensure the frost stats are set on all the TRV's and boiler.   The Boiler is new with a frost stat and I have frost stats on all the radiators except two, the bathroom and the hall (1st off the system which is always on when the heating is on), but have been told they won't matter.    So do I need to leave the heating thermostat on all day and night with the frost stats set or for only part of the day/night ?   They never mentioned that.

comeandgo

Would you be able to tell me who you have insurance with please? I’m having problems with being away 13 weeks and having to jump through hoops with set up weekly visit by someone and the cost…..

zagfles

CKhalvashi said:

When away (admittedly not for 3 months at a time), I set mine to about 15 degrees to come on for an hour overnight and an hour in the day with associated radiators. This should be enough to stop pipes from freezing which would be very expensive.

I don't believe the stopcock would affect it but it may be boiler specific. We occasionally have to top the boiler up with water which definitely is done manually.

Same - I just leave thermostat on normal, ie about 19, but heating on timed for a few hours each day (eg 3 hours morning, 2 evening). And I always turn the water stopcock off, a leak can occur anytime, not always caused by freezing.

But my house insurance (like most I think) doesn't cover unoccupied house for more than 28 days or so.

Leodogger

comeandgo said:

Would you be able to tell me who you have insurance with please? I’m having problems with being away 13 weeks and having to jump through hoops with set up weekly visit by someone and the cost…..

Well I am with Tesco Home Insurance and have in fact just finished speaking with them as my basic policy renewal only covered me for 60 days and I had been quoted £148 with M & S who would cover me for 90 days which is what I wanted.   So I contacted Tesco (who quoted me £112 for the basic policy renewal) and asked them if they would cover me for 90 days whilst we are away and they had to raise the question with the underwriters, it has taken them 10 days to come back to me.    They have now confirmed that the underwriters are happy to add it as an HN5 endorsement to our policy at no extra charge BUT it is not stated in my policy documents so I questioned that as I wanted proof I was covered for 90 days.    He said that the "HN5" would be put on the policy at the date we leave and I would be notified then but they won't state it in the policy which I was a bit wary of.   He did state though that they keep a record of the phone conversations and he had noted in his notes on the policy that they had agreed to insure us for the 90 days.     So I am taking their word for it, whether this is normal practice on endorsements I have no idea but hopefully the fact that it is on the phone records should ensure we are covered.

comeandgo

That is very good.  I’m with the Post Office who are only 30 days and would not increase it so will cancel mid insurance year.  I used to be with Tesco and then the 60 days were adequate but now have a policy a broker got for us but is just short of £700 but I’m not really happy with it but am still within the 14 days cooling off period so may cancel.   I don’t have the time to wait for anyone to get back to me.  May look into M&S and see if they can make the 90 days 92.

Leodogger

zagfles said:

CKhalvashi said:

When away (admittedly not for 3 months at a time), I set mine to about 15 degrees to come on for an hour overnight and an hour in the day with associated radiators. This should be enough to stop pipes from freezing which would be very expensive.

I don't believe the stopcock would affect it but it may be boiler specific. We occasionally have to top the boiler up with water which definitely is done manually.

Same - I just leave thermostat on normal, ie about 19, but heating on timed for a few hours each day (eg 3 hours morning, 2 evening). And I always turn the water stopcock off, a leak can occur anytime, not always caused by freezing.

But my house insurance (like most I think) doesn't cover unoccupied house for more than 28 days or so.

We are pensioners and cannot afford to leave our heating on that sort of temperature, so will probably do as the insurance company recommends and make sure the frost stats are all turned onto that setting.   The boiler already has a frost stat on it.   Will turn off the water at the stop !!!!!! in the house too.  That at least will stop the pipes freezing up.

bagand96

Leodogger said:

Just renewed my home insurance and they said just to ensure the frost stats are set on all the TRV's and boiler.   The Boiler is new with a frost stat and I have frost stats on all the radiators except two, the bathroom and the hall (1st off the system which is always on when the heating is on), but have been told they won't matter.    So do I need to leave the heating thermostat on all day and night with the frost stats set or for only part of the day/night ?   They never mentioned that.

You're looking at 2 sets of settings - the general heating and the TRVs.  Your heating thermostat/controller is the overall control dictating when the heating is on or off based on the time and temperatures set.  The TRVs work on top of that and will respond to their setting for each room.  

As you say set heating thermostat to frost protection and the TRVs. To be honest you could leave the TRVs on their normal setting, because if the heating thermostat is set to frost protection then the heating won't be coming on so the TRV setting doesn't matter.

If I was away for that long I might consider setting the heating to come on maybe once a week to warm the house through, particularly in the coldest months.