No heat in northern home all winter.

Hmmmm maybe you should sell the 5000 sq ft home with the 10 bedrooms and get a smaller house?????? Holy Crp $4000 is a lot even for the bad winter y'all just had especially if set at 50 degrees. Maybe you left a window open?? But for real houses don't fare well with no heat at all. Drywall gets damp, paneling warps, tile will pop off etc. Maybe spend some money and winterize your home better to get the heat bill down. Or since you are only living in it part time it may be time to sell and downsize to a smaller home.

I would not turn off the heat. Things will get damaged during freeze/thaw cycles.

What system are you using to heat your house?

Did you close the doors and windows before you left? We live where temps drop to minus 20 on average (minus 32 this year).....and left our thermometer on 50. Our heat bill was $60.00 one month and lower the other months! I'd be taking next year's $4000. and getting some GOOD insulation!!!!!

Wow, four grand just to heat to 50 is indeed a lot. Glad you are not trying to live in that through the winter. While we live much farther south and don't leave home for more than a week or so during winter, we have no central heat we can control, either, so it gets whatever temperature it gets. But then good insulation and passive solar heat does keep our house above 50 even for a week below freezing. So, yes, some of us do that. But our house clearly does not act like your house.

And I too would worry about damage to drywall and consider strongly adding insulation. Unless you are heating a huge space, it sounds like you have some kind of major heat loss problem. Are you sure a neighbor hasn't found a way to suck your heat into his house?

No heat at all is not usually recommended if you have drywall on your walls. $4000 sounds like an awful lot of $$ for just keeping the house at 50 degrees. How's the insullation in the house? Rather than risk damage to the house, it may be wise to improve the insulation. We had a small cottage (950 square feet) that we kept minimal heat for the cold western NY winters, and I don't think it cost me more than five or six hundred bucks per winter. The cottage had some insulation in walls and ceiling.

what would it cost to keep it at 40 degrees? I know some cabins are designed to be drained completely but I would be worried about a house. bottom of water heater, etc.? $4,000 to keep a house cool for how many months? what do you have, resistance electric heat?
bumpy