Letting a house go cold for the winter

[cat in january]

So 1940's stick built house that I will be away from for most of the winter.

The common wisdom i grew up with is you do not want to let your house go cold. I know you need to protect your plumbing and I am sure I can manage that with the help of my plumber.

The advantages are the cost savings for heating oil, not needing to keep a way shoveled for the oil man, not needing to worry about ice damns forming on the roof.

Lots of seasonal homes are allowed to go cold in the winter.

Anyone have thoughts?

[riser4]

Make sure the plumber knows the whole system. I'm specifically thinking of my father in law's house. The inlet from the spring froze last March. They forgot about that. However, the plumbing there is a nightmare.

[bigdude2468]

So 1940's stick built house that I will be away from for most of the winter.

The common wisdom i grew up with is you do not want to let your house go cold. I know you need to protect your plumbing and I am sure I can manage that with the help of my plumber.

The advantages are the cost savings for heating oil, not needing to keep a way shoveled for the oil man, not needing to worry about ice damns forming on the roof.

Lots of seasonal homes are allowed to go cold in the winter.

Anyone have thoughts?

We leave for the winter but I leave the temp at 50 F. When you lower the thermostat that much the energy cost becomes pretty insignificant. I do blow out the pipes and pour RV anti-freeze into the toilets and traps as a precaution. I have a Nest WIFI thermostat that lets me check the temperature whenever I want. I can also adjust the thermostat from any device. We live in Wisconsin so temps are as cold as you experience. Have a couple of lights on timers so it appears that there is activity and a neighbor keeps our drive way clear. A drive way full of snow is a sure sign of no one being home.

[BigDaddy]

As long as you drain all pipes, put antifreeze in toilets, dishwasher, etc., you're fine. Another thing is insurance, too. Some policies are written based on home being occupied. Obviously, don't go telling them your plans, but it's something to maybe look into. Would suck to have a fire, then be denied coverage due to one bullshit clause.

Otherwise arrange for someone to check on things periodically and post pics of amazing ski adventure.

[Timberridge]

Some policies are written based on home being occupied.

Mice don't count?

[Jacques Sheer-Rocko]

We use the Intermediate FreezeAlarm from http://www.controlproductsonline.com...p-17-l-en.html for the ski house when we're not there. It plugs into a land line and calls programmed phone numbers when a programmed temp is reached or when power goes out. Our place has tremendous water pressure and the power goes out frequently. The thought of having an unattended burst pipe for days or weeks scares the hell out of me. Much piece of mind in calling and hearing the nice robot lady tell me it's 52 degrees and the power is on. Of course, this requires a local friend/neighbor/plumber to check on things if they get a call, doesn't sound like a problem for you.

[iceman]

One easy precaution to take is to throw the breaker on the pump if you're on a well. That way the house won't flood even if a pipe bursts.

[BigDaddy]

Mice don't count?

Indigenous species are classified as jaded locals and exempt from conforming to norms of social behavior as opposed to flatlanders, otherwise known as invasive species.

[MontuckyFried]

I wouldn't do it. The house I live in was a foreclosure and sat vacant for a few winters. It was winterized, so thankfully all the internal plumbing was fine, but the cold obviously took a toll on just about everything else in the house. Only 10 years old yet I've had nearly everything go bad that could possibly go bad, even flooring.

Just set your thermostat to 50 or 55 degrees, which will drastically reduce your heating bills, and get a Nest so you can check on your place for piece of mind. You can even get wet sensors to make sure there are no leaks or flooding in areas that might be more susceptible to that!

[AdironRider]

I would leave the house at 50 and pay the added costs for doing so.

A buddy of mine couldn't rent out his apartment in the back of his rental property one winter. Pipes froze. Saving a G on heat cost him 75k when it was all said and done.

Plus what was mentioned above. I feel it would a sure fire way to add lots of "wear" to the house. Freeze thaw cycles are hell on pretty much everything.

[MontuckyFried]

Freeze thaw cycles are hell on pretty much everything.

Especially rubber seals. While my pipes were ok, just about every single plumbing fixture in my house had to be replaced as they'd all leak or spray water out the sides. I blame that on the cold. Weather stripping's all shot. Anything plastic might not fare well either since even many of my light switches had to be replaced too. And as obvious as it should be, drain your hot tub if you have one. My house came with one, but was left full of water so the shell was split clean in two. My house came with a 500+ gallon ice cube. Had to wait til summer to get rid of it. Haha.

I learned my lesson. Don't buy a foreclosure up north that's been vacant for very long. Place has reminded me of that movie, the Money Pit. So the moral of my story? Don't be a cheapskate about the heat as you could definitely pay for it many times over in repair bills.

[ThreeRidges]

From my experience, 50* does not cost much and saves you from pipe/wood issues. I'd still find a way to shut the water off, and turn off your hot water heater so you're not paying for that.

[glademaster]

Shut off the water, water heater, drain everything you can and leave the thermostat at 50-55. I could see this being more of a conundrum back when home heating oil was $4.00+/gallon, but it's cheap right now, take advantage and get yourself some inexpensive peace of mind.

[Meathelmet]

If it is a wooden house from the 40s in its "original condition" with no extensive remodeling (with vapor barriers etc..) there is no problems.

My family have two houses located in high artcic.. One is from 1800 something and one from the end of 1940s. Wood/timber construction with woodchip insulation or some other organic insulation. The houses have been shut down for winter for the last 40 years. Other has plumbing, one doesnt.

- We open the water valves (upstairs + basement) and blow them empty with compressed air to make sure no water gets left in the copper pipes.
- Close the ventilation (cellar/attic) so the temperature fluctuations would be as slow as possible = No condensation.
- Cover the chimney.
- Remove any food from the premises so the rodents dont have a buffet. Maybe leave some rodent poison to make sure they dont run amok.

When coming back the normal routine is to open up all possible ventilation and get the water running while keeping eye for leaks.
The only thing where to be careful is the fireplace. If you have those massive stone/brick fireplaces, they take AGES to heat up to the ambient temps.
If you set up a good fire while they are cold, you risk cracking them and they are done after that.
To speed up the warming process it is good to set up a big candle in the fireplace for a day or carefully burn some paper trashes etc..

Friends have renovated houses that have been empty for 20-30 years. As long as the roof is intact and the cellar ventilation have been left open, there has been very few surprises. Old buildings are great in that sense.



Edit : Oh, forgot to add! As you seem to have water radiators (oil heating?) be really,really careful! It is really easy that you get some water pockets left behind in the piping that will burst.
And depending on the house layout, you have to be uber careful if you decide to leave the house semi cold. If you decide lower the temp in the water radiators (say, +5c) the termostates might not be able to react to cold spells... Then there is a big risk you will burst a radiator/radiator plumbing somewhere in the house...
Seen personally one incident where the family was away for a vacation for two of weeks. When they came back they had a nice skating rink inside their house..

Edit 2 : spelling...

[KQ]

I'm letting one of my houses go cold for the winter. Antifreeze (RV) in the plumbing etc. I followed this advice:

Winterizing a Cold-Weather Home
How to prepare a house for its long, lonely season without inhabitants

I would leave the house at 50 and pay the added costs for doing so.

A buddy of mine couldn't rent out his apartment in the back of his rental property one winter. Pipes froze. Saving a G on heat cost him 75k when it was all said and done.

Plus what was mentioned above. I feel it would a sure fire way to add lots of "wear" to the house. Freeze thaw cycles are hell on pretty much everything.

Sounds like your buddy didn't do what needs to be done. Freeze thaw cycles aren't a problem if you've properly prepared the house.

[Timberridge]

Place will be fine.

In VT you have to worry about heroin addicts looking for a place to hang out.

[stfu&gbtw]

We do this all the time. No biggie. If there's no standing water, there isn't much else to worry about. I drain the water, blow out the tanks, shut off the water pump, water heater, inverter, I make sure my batteries are topped up, lower bulk charge time to 3:00 the float level to 26.6v.

Even if we lived on the grid, I'd still shut the house off when we left for any period of time. Way easier than wondering if the heat and water will stay on and not cause any problems.

[irul&ublo]

We use the Intermediate FreezeAlarm from http://www.controlproductsonline.com...p-17-l-en.html for the ski house when we're not there. It plugs into a land line and calls programmed phone numbers when a programmed temp is reached or when power goes out. Our place has tremendous water pressure and the power goes out frequently. The thought of having an unattended burst pipe for days or weeks scares the hell out of me. Much piece of mind in calling and hearing the nice robot lady tell me it's 52 degrees and the power is on. Of course, this requires a local friend/neighbor/plumber to check on things if they get a call, doesn't sound like a problem for you.

Shut the water off?


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[XXX-er]

I vote for leaving it at 50 and think your insurance requires someone has to do a visit every week ?

[Jacques Sheer-Rocko]

Shut the water off?


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Hydronic heating using potable water from the main. It's not quite a closed system and needs to be able to draw in some water from time to time.