Heating an empty home to prevent frozen pipes, damage, etc - timer settings?

stuhse

Where abouts roughly are you (for weather forecast purposes)

What_time_is_it

South-east England. Surrey.

What_time_is_it

Gerry1 said:

What_time_is_it said:

Gerry1 said:

Leave it on the whole time with the thermostat set to 10⁰-12⁰C or whatever the insurance company requires.  Turn the water off at the stopcock.

Saving a few pounds would be a false economy if the pipes burst and flood the place.

Thanks. The stopcock is jammed so we can't do that.

Turn it off at the stopcock in the street.

What_time_is_it said:

Gerry1 said:

Leave it on the whole time with the thermostat set to 10⁰-12⁰C or whatever the insurance company requires.  Turn the water off at the stopcock.

Saving a few pounds would be a false economy if the pipes burst and flood the place.

It can be on all of the time (which is about £60+ a day)

Not unless you have guardsmen in bearskin hats outside.  Even a 28kW boiler going full pelt 24h would only cost around £47 per day.

Err on the side of caution, open the loft hatch as well.  A flood doesn't bear thinking about, especially after exchange of contracts.

Thanks for the advice. Really useful.
I think I've seen it run up about 700 kwhs in a day. At one point it was using 65,000 kwhs a year!

Scot_39

It took one day during beast from east for pipes in my loft space to freeze - one plastic for shower  -  one main supply to hot water tank despite installed tube style insulation.  As both running above main loft insulation.

I called out a plumber who said it was a faulty electric shower - called a different plumber the next day - who confirmed was the pipes.

Luckily they survived with gentle rewarming.

Home occupied - so running water.

And heating to for me high 17c upstairs rooms - but outside was windy and a sub zero daytime high that day.

Many even still pop loft hatches open couple of inches on colder days - I'll be doing so this evening for next few days (-4/-5 night 0 days forecast).


No 2 homes or plumbing installations same.

You need to find what works for you.

Insurance Companies are even funnier about minimal heating in unoccupied spaces.

And make sure they know its unoccupied - that means no one regularly living (sleeping, meals etc) there - an odd visit for a few hours once a week does not count - or they could deny any claim.


At one stage direct line recommended 15C min unoccupied, but Which said 12C common occupied.

I know people who still  spend weeks / months away on business.  Some drain down water pipes and tanks and even their radiator wet heating if away over winter and turn off at external stopcock.  And just let home reach very low temps.

Costs £100s if pay for it - they didn't - rather than heating costs and misery of burst pipes.

14C min a better target if home susceptible to damp and mould.

You need to have a good look at pipes etc and find out what setting keeps the home warm enough if leaving water on especially.






 

Swipe

Temps this week for Weybridge. I think you'll be fine as day time temps and lots of sunshine will give your pipes some respite and the overnight low is not too severe. 

Gerry1

What_time_is_it said:

Gerry1 said:

What_time_is_it said:

Gerry1 said:

Leave it on the whole time with the thermostat set to 10⁰-12⁰C or whatever the insurance company requires.  Turn the water off at the stopcock.

Saving a few pounds would be a false economy if the pipes burst and flood the place.

Thanks. The stopcock is jammed so we can't do that.

Turn it off at the stopcock in the street.

What_time_is_it said:

Gerry1 said:

Leave it on the whole time with the thermostat set to 10⁰-12⁰C or whatever the insurance company requires.  Turn the water off at the stopcock.

Saving a few pounds would be a false economy if the pipes burst and flood the place.

It can be on all of the time (which is about £60+ a day)

Not unless you have guardsmen in bearskin hats outside.  Even a 28kW boiler going full pelt 24h would only cost around £47 per day.

Err on the side of caution, open the loft hatch as well.  A flood doesn't bear thinking about, especially after exchange of contracts.

I think I've seen it run up about 700 kWhs in a day

Still only around £49 on SVT.

Gerry1

You can see real time temperatures nearby st https://www.wunderground.com/wundermap

Scot_39

Swipe said:

You'd be very unlucky to get frozen pipes with your current schedule. As long as the house is getting to around 10C when it's on and there's water flowing through the pipes you'll be fine. Although it is going to be very cold on Wednesday night, for pipes to freeze it really needs a prolonged cold spell with sub zero day time temps and no heating for a few days.

The home is unoccupied during the week.

There is no running water.

And don't suggest leaving a cold water tap dripping or running low etc - worst case the drain freezes and you flood the home anyway.

Only seen it in really cold climates.

But having seen it no chance would risk in coldest days in UK in many homes.

ArbitraryRandom

If you don't want the heating on much more, could you maybe supercharge the lagging for any exposed pipes and really have a go on Wednesday at getting that stopcock unstuck so you only need to worry about the water in the closed system? 

A couple of hours a day 'should' keep the boiler ticking over, but it's the standing water in any tank/ the pipes that would be the bigger concern. 

stuhse

Temperatures arent really low enough this week to cause problems,  especially as you have heating for some of the time.   Having worked many a night shift i can tell you the coldest period is usually the early hours of the morning 2-4am. Going forward Id move your heating to be 9-11pm  then 1 - 4am  boiler on a low heat say setting 2  (just check it does come on at that setting from cold)  .   If a real cold spell gets forecast then just increase the timings during that  period.