Turning your heat off at home while in Florida

MDKMDK wrote:

DougE wrote:
For a rule of thumb, you can assume the temperature of the pipes in the exterior walls will be halfway between the interior temperature and the outside temperature. If its 0*F outside and you have the thermostat set to 60*F inside then the pipe could reach 30*F. BTW, pipe insulation does not stop freezing, it just increases the amount of time till the pipe does freeze.

Good point. That's why we don't drop our T-stat below 65F when away, and the auxiliary heating is set to fire at the same temperature, so as to not lose too much ground in the event of a power failure that takes out the HVAC system. Our security system tells us if a power outage happens, and we deal with it, as required.
So far, so good.

I guess I would add the phrase "it depends" to the above comments. It depends on your house design (does it have a basement, are the water pipes internal or in the walls, what sort of heating system do you have, how well is the house insulated etc.)

In our case all the water pipes are internal in the basement (except for the hose bibs outside that I drain), the heating is forced warm air, the heating ducts in the basement keep it 2C above the main floor set point and keep the pipes warm, and the house is well insulated. I don't have concerns about setting the temp at 10C. If you have the knowledge of your house and how it's built it's OK, if not, a higher temp may be mandated. The quality of the power supply network is also important.

As a FYI, we had the transformer that powers our (and our neighbours) house blow up 2 years ago during in an ice storm. It took 30 hours to bring the main floor temp down to the ambient outside temp, the electric guys installed an "extension cord" from another neighbours place to restore our power while a new transformer was installed. This experience confirmed some of the calculations that some of us did to prepare (and prevent freeze ups) for the worst Y2K situation that didn't happen at that time.

DougE wrote:
For a rule of thumb, you can assume the temperature of the pipes in the exterior walls will be halfway between the interior temperature and the outside temperature. If its 0*F outside and you have the thermostat set to 60*F inside then the pipe could reach 30*F. BTW, pipe insulation does not stop freezing, it just increases the amount of time till the pipe does freeze.

Good point. That's why we don't drop our T-stat below 65F when away, and the auxiliary heating is set to fire at the same temperature, so as to not lose too much ground in the event of a power failure that takes out the HVAC system. Our security system tells us if a power outage happens, and we deal with it, as required.
So far, so good.

For a rule of thumb, you can assume the temperature of the pipes in the exterior walls will be halfway between the interior temperature and the outside temperature. If its 0*F outside and you have the thermostat set to 60*F inside then the pipe could reach 30*F. BTW, pipe insulation does not stop freezing, it just increases the amount of time till the pipe does freeze.

The water heater is another issue. We used to turn it off every time we went away but recently had to have the igniter cleaned due to overwork to the tune of $$$. The tech said to turn the heater down to the `on' position; not all the way off. This, however, keeps the pilot lit all the time.

We winterize the plumbing (in case of power outage) and then set the thermostat to 50. No problems

I also added some Amazon Cloud cams, which allowed me to see that a person was shining a flashlight around our living room at 3:15 AM one night... they must have noticed the stickers near the doors that say I have surveilance, because nothing ever happened

I set the thermostat at 10C and shut off the water. We have a smart thermostat and s service that I can log onto and look at the temps minute-by minute, it also is set to send me and our house checker an email if the temp goes below set point, it also warns loss of connection (for example power failure if power is off for longer than the battery backup lasts).
I don't want to go through the hassle of winterizing the water system if I shut off the furnace, don't like pink showers when we return!

I just installed a "Ring Spotlight Camera" over our garage door to compliment the "Ring Doorbell". I may add another Spotlight Camera for the backdoor/yard before we leave this winter. The Ring allows me to use my smartphone to see when anyone approaches our house and anytime I want to see what it's like back home.

I use an Ecobee thermostat on our heatpump to monitor the temperature inside the house. It alerts me when temperatures exceed my settings and when the auxiliary heat runs more than an hour in any 24 hour period. I can adjust the thermostat from my smartphone.

I don't drain the pipes but I do shut off the water as it enters the house and flush a toilet to relieve the pressure. I turn off the water heater and unplug as many power supplies as possible. Several lights are controlled by smart switches according my schedule to give the house a lived in look.

Cancelling the trash pickup saves us a bunch too. I submit a "Vacation Watch" to the local police and they check the doors on an irregular basis to make sure the place stays secured.

I contract (POA) with a lettercarrier out of our post office to collect my mail in my absence and forward it to me at the addresses I supply along our route. This has worked better than any method we've ever used including relying on relatives.

These measures allow me to enjoy our trips without worrying about the house or relying on others to stop by and check things (which never worked anyway).

I'm about 300 miles west of your 10-20.
We just turn the furnace thermostat down, and don't touch the water.
For thermal backup, I've got 2 X 30K BTU gas fireplaces, one up, one down, standing pilot, thermostatically controlled, set to fire up at just slightly lower than the furnace thermostat setting. If the power were to go out, the 2 fireplaces can heat the entire house, and keep the pipes warm. We hardly use our furnace in the winter at all any more, it's become the backup. We let the fireplaces handle the heating, and just keep it for summer cooling.
I can check the temperature via remote security camera access, if necessary.

We turn the heat down to 55℉ in our upstate NY cottage and turn off the water heaters and pump plus depressurize, not drain, the water system. We monitor the cottage temperature with an Acu-Rite system that alerts us by text message if the temp drops below our alert settings so we can notify family to check on it.

not off, down. we haven't drained water as we have a whole-house genny in case of a power failure.