What do you set your house heat at when leaving for winter?

I think a lot depends WHERE you live.
Different answers for different areas. Need to pick the suggestions based on where 'you' live.

For me from up North Wisconsin. Stormy weather, sub zero temps the ticket of the day and power outages often. I am not about to take any chances of damaging my home.

I would never leave the fridge running filled with any food. Empty, door propped open and it would be unplugged.

Leaving your heat set at any temp won't help if there is no power to run it. I.E. frozen pipes, pumps, appliances,etc.

Just shutting off the water doesn't take care of any low points within the lines that still have water in them.

I called a contractor about doing that 'once' and they said no way because they could not guarantee that all the water is out and protected from freezing in a power failure. That and they had seen drywall become affected in a power failure in cold weather in empty houses too. There experience in ""my area"" with trying to winterize a house to leave was not to do it or risk damage.

Soooo, that all said. I always had a caretaker stay in my home to keep it safe when I Snowbirded to Florida.

loneryder wrote:
This will be my first time SB ing and I was thinking about what to leave the heat set at when gone. I was thinking leaving the heat pump at 50-55. Water and everything else will be off and unplugged. House is on a standby generator.

We leave our heat on 55F to help keep the pipes from freezing and because we leave many tropical plants in the sunroom. We have a gal who comes in and cares for them while we're gone. She also picks up the mail and makes sure all is well. A few lights are also left on.

Padlin wrote:

Uncle Grumpy wrote:
Don't forget to open the fridge door

Obviously you empty the fridge and freezer, do others do this?


The fridge in our trailer is way too small to hold what's in the house fridge.

We try to eat ourselves out of the fridge the best we can prior to turning it off. Everything then goes into the RV, or to someone that can use it.

If I was to leave the fridge on, I would place an ice cube in a cup in the freezer. When I came back if it was still a cube then I knew the power never went off long enough to thaw out. Now if it was a block of ice in the bottom of the cup, might just as well throw everything out because it probably spoiled before refreezing.

Don't forget to turn the water heater breaker off. I also drain mine.

Fridge is always left running, with food in it. we have the temp monitor and the power monitor to keep track of what is happening, so why empty and turn off the fridge.

Padlin wrote:

Uncle Grumpy wrote:
Don't forget to open the fridge door

Obviously you empty the fridge and freezer, do others do this?


The fridge in our trailer is way too small to hold what's in the house fridge.

The only things we take out of the cottage fridge and freezer are those items that would spoil before we get there again in 3 or 4 months. Both are left running.

Uncle Grumpy wrote:
Don't forget to open the fridge door

Obviously you empty the fridge and freezer, do others do this?


The fridge in our trailer is way too small to hold what's in the house fridge.

We set the furnace at 55. We have a ventless gas fireplace in the LR set at 50, and a ventless gas stove in the basement set at 50. If the furnace fails (power outage) the fireplace and stove will keep it warm.
We also have our fire alarm and a temperature sensor connected to a Dakota Alert Auto Dialer. If the fire alarm goes off or the temp gets to 45 it will dial 9 phone numbers. So far we have always left the water on.
http://www.dakotaalert.com/catb2b1/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=67

We leave ours at 52. Just checked the temp from 1300 miles away.

krobbe wrote:

Dutch_12078 wrote:

krobbe wrote:

loneryder wrote:
Is everyone using web enabled thermostats or is there another way to do that?

On a low or high temperature, a Sensaphone400 autodialer will call up to 4 phone #'s using a standard phone line. The Sensaphone600Web will send email and/or text messages using an internet connection.
They both go for $355 on Amazon. These autodialers are commonly used by municipalities for cheap remote location alarm annunciation.
It saved my Dad's house last winter when the igniter went bad in his furnace. Called me at 4:00 in the morning on a low temperature. Had it fixed before the temperature dropped below 38F.

We use an AcuRite AcuLink Internet bridge to monitor three remote temperature/humidity sensors at our cottage. The readings are available online with a browser and with an Android or iOS app. Alarm levels can be set for high/low temps and/or humidity, as well as for failed readings or communications. The alerts can be sent by email and/or text. The bridge is about $70 and the remote sensors are about $13 each. The monitoring server access is free.

AcuLink Internet Bridge

That AcuRite looks like a good lower cost solution if there is an internet connection.
But my folks use my Verizon Jetpack and take it with them when they leave. So no internet is available. The Sensaphone400 uses just a standard phone line. We can also call it to query the current temperature. When it calls out on alarm, it will go through up to 4 phone numbers until it is acknowledged using a code like 555#. I haven't seen a lower cost solution for a standard autodialer.

Yep, the Sensaphone looks like the best solution for that situation. We drop our TWC Internet service down to their $15/mo basic plan when we're not visiting the cottage. It's slow, but fast enough for the AcuLink.