Going away in winter - do I drain taps to prevent freezing

[iray]

Hi,

My property will be empty for several weeks this winter and I want to take precautions to prevent possible freezing water pipes.

I have an electric central heating system (so no heating pipes to worry about!) which I could leave running if necessary on a low setting in rooms containing water pipes but I would prefer to save energy and find an alternative method. Here are my questions:

1. Could I be sure of no problems with frozen/burst water if I just turn off the mains water at the main supply tap inside my house and 'drain' the sink/shower/bath taps and MAIN gas multipoint boiler (just a hot water boiler, not a combination) before I go away?

2. When I tried this draining operation earlier, turning main water supply tap off first then each domestic hot and cold water tap in turn, the only place I found any water to drain was from the multipoint boiler (a MAIN gas water boiler, not a combination boiler). As no water came out of normal taps, is draining in this way (once main supply is off) a waste of time?

3. If I should drain individual hot and cold water taps should I leave these taps (at sinks/shower/bath) OPEN when I go away, or should I CLOSE them (main supply tap off of course!) and what's the logic behind this decision?

Thanks for any advice you can give me.

Ray

 

[ianblue]

You will probably never get all the water out even if drain valves have been fitted.
I would be much happier leaving the heating on 24hrs but setting the temperature to say 5 deg C.
That way you will waste hardly any energy.
You don't mention if its a semi, flat or detached. The only point being if its any of the former you will be borrowing heat from your neighbour to keep you above the low limit setting.
Good luck have a nice holiday and if you follow mysuggestion you will come back to no problems.
ps Would be interesting to note meter readings before going.

 

[Hufty]

I personally would turn the water off at the incoming stopcock, open up all the taps and give everything a chance to drain, then close them again. As you don't have gas heating, I would turn off the gas. Then I would get on my flight and forget about the UK for a bit. The important thing is to turn off the incoming supply as this limits the amount of water available in a catastrophe - the draining is a nicety.

If the incoming stopcock turns the water off absolutely and doesn't let even a drip by, it doesn't really matter whether the taps etc are open or closed.

If the stopcock lets by and you have the taps all closed, then the pipes will fill very slowly until they are at mains pressure and after a while it will be as if you hadn't drained the system.

If the stopcock lets by and you have taps open, then the pipes will very slowly fill but instead of getting to mains pressure, water will drip from the lowest outlet into whatever sink it supplies, and run down the plughole. It's these drips that freeze and cause a blockage.

I would reckon in general that the chance of an outside soil/waste pipe freezing up in a long cold spell is greater than that of an inside pipe freezing, hence I would take my chances with the taps closed.

What makes you think it's going to be a cold winter again anyway?

 

[iray]

Many thanks for your replies and I'll therefore be turning off the main stopcock then draining & closing taps before I go away. I've checked the main stopcock and it closes off the supply completely (isn't 'letting by') - I replaced the washer a few years back and it's still doing the job.

I'm actually in an upstairs maisonette so will benefit from a little rising heat from below, but if last years temperatures are anything to go by, I'm pretty sure it gets cold enough inside for freezing to occur. If it feels like Siberia, I may still leave some heating on as an extra precaution.

So far, so good with the weather this Autumn (amazing really), but this is the UK so I figure just about anything could happen in the coming months!

THANKS AGAIN

Ray

 

[doitall]

And as usual they forget antifreeze in the WC etc.

I would leave the heating on at 7c, the house will get damp etc otherwise.