Leaving heating & hot water on whilst house is empty
- Thread starter roger6qb
- Start date
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You might be better off using a room thermostat with a frost protection setting and leaving the HW off. This should maintain the house at 10 degrees - still really cold, but well above freezing point. Make sure it's wired correctly though, typically the volt-free ones will not be able to start the system unless your CH is permanently on. There are many variations of this.
Always best to turn the water off if unattended for any length of time probably.
Always best to turn the water off if unattended for any length of time probably.
and empty
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You could convert to a 'C' plan if your boiler is not fully pumped compatible, might be expensive though.
If you have a cylinder thermostat (a third of the way up the side of the cylinder) you could turn this down.
Leave the heating on 24 hours but around 8-10 deg C. A few hours in the morning or evening I've found is not peace of mind giving as it can easily freeeze betwen ON times.
Turn the boiler stat down and run all low but 24 hours.
The cost of this can be balanced against coming home to wet ceilings now at floor level.
If you have a motorized valve system you can change the EP2000 to give HTG only by a dip switch behing the unit (you have to take it off the wall).
Or empty the lot.
For the past 7 years I have run heating + water whilst we are abroad for 6 months during the winter, without any problems. However this past weekend the cold fill hose to built in washing machine burst and flooded the utility room. Question is if I turn off at stop cock would the water in the system last for 6 months without replenishing.
I don't follow the logic in this. Could expand on that please.
I would program the timer to call for heat every day for minimum period (often 10 minutes). Leave the boiler stat set to lower temperature. Reason for this? Pump gets exercised.
Frost stat if wires correctly, will do the rest. Better still fit a programmable room stat to run the boiler everyday for minimum period and take care of sudden temperature drop too.
Interesting question, I doubt it but can't say for sure as it depends on temperature and humidity. Overfill the F&E tank a bit before turning the water off. Turn off the hoses to the washing machine.
I recall seeing water coming through a friends wall one cold winter morning because the neighbours had gone away and left the heating on for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. Trouble was the neighbours system froze at three AM. We broke in then couldn't close the door again as it had swollen so much.
That memory has stayed with me.
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