We are snow birds and leave our house every winter for 4 or 5 months. We have a boiler and in-floor heat that both need the water connected. I have it set up so we can shut the water off to the house while leaving it on for the boiler. There is a drain in our furnace room in case a pipe should break. If you have a boiler be sure it won't do damage to it by turning the water off.
A neighbor checks our house every 2 weeks, turns the water on, waters the plants, flushes the toilets and runs water in the sinks. We have a thermometer with a remote sensor. The sensor is in our house the thermometer in his. He doesn't have to leave his house to check for the furnace going out.
