Heating an empty small house in winter

TELLIT01

@Eldi_Dos suggestions are way outside the scope of the assistance requested by the house owners.  The OP isn't being employed as a caretaker, and shouldn't be expected to act as such.

The advice to turn off the stopcock and drain the cold water, along with setting the CH on a permanent low setting should be all they need to do.  Popping in once a week then to check that the property is still safe and secure should be all.

I had friends in a similar situation, although in their situation it was an inherited property and they weren't living in the area.  All they asked of me was to pop in once a week to check for any important mail that hadn't been forwarded and to make sure it was still secure.  We had been friends for decades not simply neighbours.

IOWJJBTM2025

We had to have specialist house insurance for empty house which is stuck in probate - was told that normal house insurance does not cover empty properties.
Conditions of policy - heating set to minimum 15 degrees and property has to be inspected at least once per week.

subjecttocontract

Yes I agree with the insurance tip. Most house policies have a 30 day empty limit and you certainly wouldn't want to be uninsured.

Eldi_Dos

@TELLIT01

Depends where it is in the country, if you are in a micro climate like the centre of London it probably is a bit ott, but on the other hand if it is a part of the country where you could get prolonged artic spells, better to err on the side of caution, could save large bills and upheavel.

The part about traps drying out, I have a friend who had a property in Florida and could not get there for two years at the start of covid. When they eventually did get there the U bends had dried out leading to the property becoming infested with rodents and bugs.This led to all soft furnishings being thrown out and complete fumigation and decoration
So what was supposed to be a nice holiday turned into a three week renovation project and extra hotel expenses.

WIAWSNB

Albermarle said:

For 99.9% of properties, it'll be more than adequate to keep the boiler timed to be on 24/7, with TRVs set to '1'. Even this is technically 'overkill' - 'frost' setting would do, but I think a minimum background 'warmth' from a '1' will cost very little, and be welcomed by the house.
To be clear, I would barely expect the CH to run at all at this setting, 

Normally at least one radiator on a system should not have a TRV, and be fully on all the time.
If the boiler is on 24/7, then it will run 24/7 ( albeit modulated down) and this one radiator will be hot all the time. 
Personally I would just have the boiler timed to come on for half an hour in the evening and early morning, and probably set the TRVs at around 1.5. Just an opinion though.

That's a fair point.

In practice, however, the high return temp from one rad should ensure the boiler is off more than it's on. 

But it would make sense to tweak the supply temp of the boiler right down to, say, 50-odd degrees. 

In any case, the ongoing energy cost to the owner is almost certainly going to be - by a large margin - the unavoidable standing charge. 

Anyhoo, DoneWorking should not be so, and now take on the task of installing a Smart Prog Stat whilst his mate is away...

jbainbridge

At the very least getting a thermostat fitted would make things a lot easier. A smart thermostat can be had for around £100 plus fitting .. Which would allow remote monitoring too.

WIAWSNB

jbainbridge said:

At the very least getting a thermostat fitted would make things a lot easier. A smart thermostat can be had for around £100 plus fitting .. Which would allow remote monitoring too.

Yeah, NotDoneWorking is on the case. 

Swipe

The good news is the winter forecast is for a mild one with above average temps so hopefully might not get too many deep frosts

Elliemiss

I had to get specialist insurance recently when my brother was receiving end of life care and house empty (sadly now deceased)
The insurance company asked us to keep the central heating on 15-16° and check house 1-2 times weekly. 

Bigphil1474

OP, when my dads house was going through Probate we had to get empty home insurance but they didn't specify any temperature. We just left it 'on' and set at the anti freeze level on all radiators. We did have to do weekly checks on the house for the insurance, so we left a little notebook near the front door and whoever called round just ticked off to say they'd checked the necessary items - roof, electrics, water, damage etc. We turned the main stop tap off. This was in the Midlands.