I shall be abandoning my late mother's house for 6 months. I'm in the process of clearing it, but it is taking an age and I have little time I can dedicate to the task just now. It's also 300+ miles away so dropping by for a weekend is impractical.
There is empty property insurance in place. There is a lovely condition in it that that says between November and May, either drain the CH or leave the heating running at 12 °C 24/7.
Almost two years ago we had the ancient conventional boiler replaced with a Vitrodens 100-W fitted. That meant we went from a room thermostat in the hall to a freak of a control system that no one truly understands. The winter of 21/22 cost the thick end of £2k to keep the house at 12 °C. The winter of 22/23, thanks to an ass of a third party servicing firm, the boiler was serviced, turned off, but the system wasn't drained. However, I did return to find a plastic stopend on a mains pipe in the bathroom had popped off. Little damage was done as the water had been turned off at the stopcock but it was a wake-up call.
So now I'm unsure what to do. I'll be damned if I shell out a small fortune to hold the place at 12 °C. I'm reluctant to have the system drained; that wouldn't have prevented the pipe freezing last year.
Any thoughts on a sensible course of action welcome.
There is empty property insurance in place. There is a lovely condition in it that that says between November and May, either drain the CH or leave the heating running at 12 °C 24/7.
Almost two years ago we had the ancient conventional boiler replaced with a Vitrodens 100-W fitted. That meant we went from a room thermostat in the hall to a freak of a control system that no one truly understands. The winter of 21/22 cost the thick end of £2k to keep the house at 12 °C. The winter of 22/23, thanks to an ass of a third party servicing firm, the boiler was serviced, turned off, but the system wasn't drained. However, I did return to find a plastic stopend on a mains pipe in the bathroom had popped off. Little damage was done as the water had been turned off at the stopcock but it was a wake-up call.
So now I'm unsure what to do. I'll be damned if I shell out a small fortune to hold the place at 12 °C. I'm reluctant to have the system drained; that wouldn't have prevented the pipe freezing last year.
Any thoughts on a sensible course of action welcome.