How to winterize your house while heading south

Us out West wrote:
Well we are lucky to have a good friend stay at our home while we travel.

All we do is turn off the outside water and he takes care of the rest....peace of mind.

He even forwards our mail.

I just don't want street people living in my house when I gone. I just drain it and forget.

Dick_B wrote:
We turn off the main water valve, turn off the Water Heater and set the t/s at 55 degrees F. Not sure why draining it is recommended. We don't.

+1 did it that way last 3 years. Neighbor checked on things and watered houseplants. I did pour pink stuff in all drains more to prevent them from going dry and letting sewer gas back up.

I drain my water heater because it is in my unheated garage.

We turn off the main water valve, turn off the Water Heater and set the t/s at 55 degrees F. Not sure why draining it is recommended. We don't.

I live in a subdivision that has underground utilities, but they come to the surface someplace, which makes the houses vulnerable during any season. And it did happen a few times when I wasn't on the road. I figured that I could come home from even a summer trip to blinking digital clocks without knowing how long the power was off. That meant that I could come home to a perfectly frozen upright freezer full of rotten but re-frozen food. And it did happen. Broke my heart and pocketbook to toss most of a side of beef.
I chose to have a whole house generator installed, powered by natural gas which isn't affected by electric outages. Mine is a Generac, but several companies make them. It detects a power outage and fires up automatically. It just did last week, for a couple of hours. Mine cost around $5,000 installed, but prices depend on the number of circuits you want to protect.
I forgot the original question - I don't winterize.

I live at elev 3200 feet in the mountains of NC where we get lots of below zero temps.
I completely drain the water heater and all the pipes. I put pink stuff in all the traps and the toilet as well as a little in the toilet tanks.
I don't leave any heat on.
We leave a few night lights on.
I don't do anything to the washing machine, or dish washer.
We leave the freezer on, but turn the refrig to a low setting.
We never have had a problem with any of the electronics, and we have been doing it this way for four months every winter for the past fifteen years.

Jack L

tatest wrote:
I've left the house warm enough to deal with the weather, and paid someone to patrol daily and check it weekly, including exercising plumbing and arranging for repairs. This for two years abscence.

My brother has been snowbirding stick and bricks for more than ten years, keeps the houses at each end climate controlled, an attended. He has had flood damage in the basement to deal with. At the northern end, our sisters and their kids watch and use his house, and one nephew house sat for about 3-4 years. A house sitter with proper authority and good communication can take care of just about anything. College students often work out if your season away is as long as the school year.

I have three Michigan snowbird cousins, none winterize when going to Florida, and again, there is someone attending to the house.

There is a risk. At another house left warm, and unattended while I was away for two weeks, an ice storm took out power lines, a hard freeze followed, and house got flooded from burst pipes running through the attic.

So if you don't have someone attending to the house, it is better to winterize it. Even so, don't let it go cold, deep freeze is not so good for a lot of what you leave in the house. Thus snowbirding will not always help you save on winter heating costs.

This home must be in the South.;) Right?

I laugh when I think of whoever the genius was that decided that plumbing in the attic of a residential home anywhere was a good idea.

Well we are lucky to have a good friend stay at our home while we travel.

All we do is turn off the outside water and he takes care of the rest....peace of mind.

He even forwards our mail.

I've left the house warm enough to deal with the weather, and paid someone to patrol daily and check it weekly, including exercising plumbing and arranging for repairs. This for two years abscence.

My brother has been snowbirding stick and bricks for more than ten years, keeps the houses at each end climate controlled, an attended. He has had flood damage in the basement to deal with. At the northern end, our sisters and their kids watch and use his house, and one nephew house sat for about 3-4 years. A house sitter with proper authority and good communication can take care of just about anything. College students often work out if your season away is as long as the school year.

I have three Michigan snowbird cousins, none winterize when going to Florida, and again, there is someone attending to the house.

There is a risk. At another house left warm, and unattended while I was away for two weeks, an ice storm took out power lines, a hard freeze followed, and house got flooded from burst pipes running through the attic.

So if you don't have someone attending to the house, it is better to winterize it. Even so, don't let it go cold, deep freeze is not so good for a lot of what you leave in the house. Thus snowbirding will not always help you save on winter heating costs.

Water off, temp to 50 (good backup battery in the thermostat!), and I'm gone. HVAC has never failed before, no reason why it should now.