Home Security - what we did
Now that we're retired we take longer trips - but we worry about leaving the house for long. We don't have family in the area and don't have any close neighbors that we'd like to put responsibility on...
Forum Discussion
BurbMan wrote:We only take our long trips in spring and fall so it's unlikely to get below freezing in the house. Our decision on what we would do if the furnace stopped would have to be made at the time and depend on the circumstances. We might come home early, we might call the repairman, or we might just keep going. We do have a key hidden...pasusan wrote:
Mostly this just gives us peace of mind that the furnace is working and no one is in there.
If the temp readings indicate that the furnace isn't working, what's the plan? Do you have a repair guy that you can trust to call remotely? How do you let him in? Or do you abandon the trip and return immediately?
Friends of ours (not RVers) were in Florida for an extended period a few years ago and the oil co. missed the automatic delivery. "Arctic Blast" rolls in with temps in low single digits. Boiler quit, pipes froze, and neighbors called them the following week when it warmed up and when they saw water cascading down the front porch steps. Ins co. paid for what was almost a complete re-pipe and all new drywall in the house, damage was extensive. I think the he said pipes burst in 20 places....
We have forced air heat and when we turn our water off it drains out of the pipes so the worst that could happen is the toilets (and/or water heater) freeze and break. It would have to get pretty cold for that.
Good questions though - every time I checked on the house I wondered how we would deal with a problem. This past trip was completely uneventful - nobody even came to the door the whole time we were gone.
