Trickle heat in unoccupied house

[telnet]

My aged parents passed away and their house will be unoccupied over the winder. I was advised to set the heating to come on briefly once a day to protect the system and the fabric of the house. However, I do not want to heat the hot water cylinder every day and would prefer just to send some hot water round the rads.

Please can you advise if there is some way to stop the boiler sending heat to the tank? Perhaps I could tinker with the diverter valve or something. I am a pretty competent diyer when it comes to minor electrics and plumbing. For example, I can easily change the consumer unit or fit new taps and valves but I know almost nothing about hot water systems.

Thanks in advance.

 

[oilhead]

What boiler, programmer, room thermostat, diverter valve?

 

[75pete]

The hot water cylinder should have a balance valve, I would shut it.
You could drain the cold header tank and then drain the hot water cylinder.
Turn the cylinder stat to min.
Open the hot taps.
Check that the FE tank is feed from the main, should be.
The above depends on your layout.

 

[JohnD]

I do not want to heat the hot water cylinder every day

Why not? If it is properly insulated, it will lose very little heat, and what it does will go to warm the fabric of the house.

Your insurers are more likely to say "heating on 24 hours a day, set to maintain an internal temperature of 12C" or similar. This will cost very little, especially if you are in England. Solar gain through the windows will keep the indoor temperature warmer than outside. It will be coldest during the night.

Remember that the loft of an unoccupied house will get very cold, even if you are keeping the rooms at 12C or thereabouts, so consider turning off the supply and running the taps to drain the cold loft tank. It's the pipes in the loft, which have little thermal mass, that will freeze first.

 

[JohnD]

drain the hot water cylinder

Opening the hot taps will not empty the cylinder, even if the cold tank is empty.

 

[75pete]

The hot water cylinder should have a balance valve, I would shut it.
You could drain the cold header tank and then drain the hot water cylinder.
Turn the cylinder stat to min.
Open the hot taps.
Check that the FE tank is feed from the main, should be.
The above depends on your layout.

As I said, "You could drain the cold tank and then drain the hot water cylinder "

 

[JohnD]

then drain the hot water cylinder "

how?

Following your instructions will not empty it.

 

[75pete]

Sorry, you are correct John.

 

[75pete]

My indirect cylinder has a drain point on the cold feed, that's what I was thinking of. Will drain most from the cylinder.

 

[telnet]

What boiler, programmer, room thermostat, diverter valve?

Why not? If it is properly insulated, it will lose very little heat, and what it does will go to warm the fabric of the house.

Your insurers are more likely to say "heating on 24 hours a day, set to maintain an internal temperature of 12C" or similar. This will cost very little, especially if you are in England. Solar gain through the windows will keep the indoor temperature warmer than outside. It will be coldest during the night.

Remember that the loft of an unoccupied house will get very cold, even if you are keeping the rooms at 12C or thereabouts, so consider turning off the supply and running the taps to drain the cold loft tank. It's the pipes in the loft, which have little thermal mass, that will freeze first.

Thanks for all your replies, it will take me a while to digest. Meanwhile, I can tell you it is a Danesmore 20 from about 1970. The cylinder is poorly insulated with asbestos and drops from almost boiling at night to tepid in the morning. Although I agree that it will leak its heat out into the building, except that it is located next to a draughty door. There is no chance of keeping the house at 12 C. In a cold spell the heating would have to be on almost 24/7 to get up to that temp. It's a really draughty house with three chimneys.

Regarding the cylinder thermostat, even when it is set to its lowest position the water is extremely hot. However, it must work at some level since the boiler does cut off at some point, although it cycles quite frequently.

My thinking is that if I set the boiler to work 1 hour a day, as things stand it would dump most of its energy into the cylinder. I would prefer to dump the heat into the rads.

I was planning to turn off the the water at the main stop cock and if the large tank in the loft has an outflow shutoff, I would isolate that. Even better, would be to drain it as suggested above. The cylinder is beside the boiler so I don't think that would freeze if the boiler came on for an hour a day.

Also, we are in a rural area a bit north of Glasgow but the house has lots of south facing windows.

 

[JohnD]

please post a photo of the cylinder. Better insulation is available.
Show us the pipes and other things around or connected to it, especially the thermostat. Also your boiler and its timer/programmer and temperature controls.

Your cylinder is much more likely to have fibreglass than asbestos.

If you can't keep the house at a tolerable temperature you will have to drain the tanks and pipes, except the radiators and heating pipes which you can keep warm. Is there a room thermostat?

 

[KenGMac]

telnet, good evening.

In all Insurance Policies there is a clause that states if the property is to be left vacant for 30 Days [some insurers state 60 Days] then certain things happen, as far as cover is concerned.

As above, there may be a requirement that the heating is left on to provide a background heat of XXX Degrees C. Other Insurers demand that the entire water system be completely drained. It is very, very highly variable as to what different insurers DEMAND to happen in an un-occupied property.

If you do not inform the insurers and subsequently make a claim the claim could be rejected because the insurer was not informed of [as the insurer sees it] the increased risk [to the insurer]

As an aside? have you transferred the insurance to your name? failure to do so can result in the same consequences as last para?

CAUTION ! ! if you have not told the insurers of present state of ownership of the property, and the house has been un-occupied for [about] 30 days insurer will stare to ask more and more questions as to who was resident and for how long? it could be?? that a family member??? was using the house [nudge, nudge, wink wink] just to stay on-side with the insurer.

Bottom line if the insurer has not been asked you really need to contact the Insurer and see what they say.

One last point??

Sorry to go on BUT??

If you are not named on the Policy, and did not have a "POA" then that can add more questions from insurer.

Ken

 

[telnet]

please post a photo of the cylinder. Better insulation is available.
Show us the pipes and other things around or connected to it, especially the thermostat. Also your boiler and its timer/programmer and temperature controls.

Your cylinder is much more likely to have fibreglass than asbestos.

If you can't keep the house at a tolerable temperature you will have to drain the tanks and pipes, except the radiators and heating pipes which you can keep warm. Is there a room thermostat?

I will have to get back to you with photos in a couple of weeks when I return to the house. I am pleased that I have found somewhere to get good advice. And, yes the fibres might be glass, I feared the worst that they were asbestos. It used to be everywhere when I was a kid!

 

[telnet]

telnet, good evening.


Bottom line if the insurer has not been asked you really need to contact the Insurer and see what they say.



Ken

Thanks for the advice but it is all in order. The insurer does not cover you for loss of water when the house is unoccupied in probate, which it is. Lying to insurance companies to get a lower premium would be silly. Although, I can understand the temptation: if you visit the house once in 30 days, it is not unoccupied, is it?

 

[gasbanni]

Drain it all down, get a plumber to do it if you can't. Turn the external stop tap off, put antifreeze in any traps on Sinks baths and in the wc pan.

If you leave it filled and the heating breaks down after a few days and then the house freezes big problems.

Completely drained down you won't need to worry about it or Check it and inform the house insurers of your plans.