Snowbirds - closing up routine

[whitet]

To those of you who escape the cold weather for the winter... We are planning to leave our northern home unoccupied for the first time this winter. Up until now our son has been our winter live-in caretaker, but that will no longer work for us. I am curious what other northerners (we are in upstate NY) do about the heat, specifically. Can one safely leave a house without heat (we use natural gas) for 3 months, assuming the water pipes have been drained? If you are willing to share, I'd be interested in your shutdown check lists. Thank you.

[COcheesehead]

Drain the toilets too. I have also known folks who leave cabins in northern Wisconsin who pour a little antifreeze in the bowl as well. The water won't freeze and the sewer gas won't come up either.

[calmloki]

We leave our Oregon home with the heat shut off for 6 months in winter. I drain the water heater about 1/2 way down sometimes but prefer to leave it on vacation mode so I don't have to think about the tank plumping up in a freeze. Then I just worry about gas leaks or the tank boiling dry. Gotta have something to think about in vacationland. The house interior moisture comes up to ambient outside - it is noticeably damp feeling on our return, as all the wood and drywall has a winter's worth of humidity stored up. We haven't seen any serious damage yet after 10 years - except when an upstairs door got open for some months and the wood floor finish in the entrance kinda went away. We froze an icemaker line and washing machine line once

We also leave our SoCal house uncooled in summer while gone - some candles melt, some elastics fail, but it costs less to replace than cooling and wasting energy.

Per COcheesehead's comment - we plunge toilets, drain tanks and then top up the bowl with RV tank antifreeze and some bleach, then cover with saran wrap. Also fill sink, tub, and shower traps with rv antifreeze.

[Ronstar]

I leave the heat on at 55 degrees for 3 months. Shut off the water and drain the pipes a little. I keep a thermometer close to an indoor IP camera so that I can see the indoor temp remotely.

[brett]

Drain the toilets and all water taps. Turn off the water supply. Keep the furnace on low. Check your furnace air filter before you go...replace if necessary. Don't forget turn your hot water heater (if you have one) down or off. We also unplug all electrical devices that are on standby...tv, toaster, etc.

We place all valuables-papers, jewelry, and computer hard disk w/ digital photos in our safe deposit box. We take the battery out of our summer car and put it in the basement. Other car is OK since we are only gone for 2-3 months.

Check your insurance. My guess is that there is a requirement to have you home checked at specific intervals. Determine what this period is. Ask the person who does this to record dates/times.

Keep pathways to your home cleared of snow for emergency access.

We are fortunate. We have a wonderful neighbour who checks on our home and empties our junk mail. We travel 2-3 months, twice a year fall and winter. No plants, no pets. HOA does lawns and snow removal.

We have moved everything possible to email....bank statements, credit card statements...everything prior to early retirement.

DW ensures that she has the proper supply of her meds.

So far, after many extended trips all has been good. No issues whatsoever. After all...why stay at home in the dark, cold, snowy climate listening to winter storm reports when you can travel to warmer climes

[marko]

We're north of Boston and just turn down the temp to around 60 as we head to Fort Lauderdale. All our (trustworthy) neighbors also snowbird so there's no one around anymore to check on things.

We have temperature sensors (accurite.com , actually intended for outdoor use) which we put on top of our furnace and on each floor and can read the indoor temps via internet.

We do not turn off the water as the furnace--steam heat--needs regular automatic re-fills to keep running. We also have a couple of IP cameras in case something starts leaking etc.

KEY (literally) We also have one of those locks on our basement door that we can unlock/lock remotely in case we need someone to get into the house.

Plow guy comes as needed. Mail does build up but it's on an enclosed porch and no one but the mailman sees that.

At this point however, either DW or I are never gone more than 2-3 weeks without one of us needing to go back for a day or two so the house is seldom 'alone' for longer than that. And because we go back and forth all winter, a lengthy re-boot isn't practical.

Personally, letting a house (walls, floors, appliances) get down into the minus numbers--even with the water drained--is not a good idea but I can't say why.

[pb4uski]

I have two homes that get mothballed for 6 months.

For ours, we close the valves that supply hot and cold domestic water to the house, open a faucet to relieve the pressure, set the thermostats at 55F and lock the door.

On my mother's 3-season "camp", I turn the water off where it enters the building, drain the hot water heater tanks, and drain all the hot and cold water supply lines and blow them out with a shop vac, leave faucets open so if there is any residual water when it does freeze it has room to expand and then put RV antfreeze in the drains/traps and the washing machine. No heat.

[gromit]

The link below takes you to an older 7 page thread that had a number of tips on leaving a house for a lengthy period of time.


http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...pty-67935.html

[OldShooter]

If the house will freeze, the water pipes need to be emptied. This can be done with compressed air but it is a hassle and success is hard to ascertain for sure.

We routinely let our three-level walkout lake home freeze, but I have arranged the water piping into zones and also set up the piping so everything is downhill to the basement, where i have drain and zone cutoff ball valves. If a pipe does break due to water not properly drained I can cut off water to that zone until I can fix the pipe.

When we are ready to leave I turn off the pump, open all the sink and tub faucets to admit air, open the water heater drain, open any closed zone valves, and open the system drain valve. After flushing toilets until the tanks are as close to empty ad possible, I use a plunger to eliminate as much water from the toilet bowls as possible, then add RV antifreeze to both the tanks and the bowls. I also add RV antifreeze to the traps under the sinks. Overall it takes about a gallon to do the house.

This sounds harder than it is, taking maybe 20 minutes total. Admittedly, getting the piping properly set up was no picnic.

[pb4uski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldShooter ....but I have arranged the water piping into zones and also set up the piping so everything is downhill to the basement, where i have drain and zone cutoff ball valves. ...

Our place was like that before we demolished and rebuilt... I turned off the water supply, opened all the faucets and then everything drained into a 5 gal pail with opening one ball valve.... it was a really sweet system.

[skipro33]

For all sink and toilet traps, use the 'pink stuff' Sold at RV dealerships and Walmart, this stuff won't freeze and saves pipes.

Shut off water at the meter or entry to the property, not just to the house. Drain the water lines by blowing out with air. Many landscaping irrigation systems use a air hose connection to blow out water, should duplicate for the home.

Don't leave stuff in the fridge or freezer. Fridge because they may freeze if it gets cold enough and both just in case you have a power outage and it ain't cold enough.

For that matter, I have a home weather system with sensors in my freezer and fridge. When alarm levels are met, my cloud based weather dashboard will text and e-mail with the event. I can then log into my cameras and look-see what's up, or call a neighbor or family member to check it out.
Stop or forward mail and newspaper.
Forward land line phone to your cell phone.

[rk911]

we set the heat at 60 and do not drain the toilets, pipes, etc. but we have placed Notion sensors in each bathroom, by the WH, etc. we can monitor them via the interweb. also have indoor and outdoor sec. cams, ring doorbell, neighbors who watch the place and other folks we can call to help out as needed.

[pb4uski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by skipro33 ....Shut off water at the meter or entry to the property, not just to the house. Drain the water lines by blowing out with air. Many landscaping irrigation systems use a air hose connection to blow out water, should duplicate for the home. ...

At my mom's place, I can easily blow out the domestic water pipes by putting a shop vac exhaust on the outside hose spigots and opening up all faucets.

Also, don't forget to run RV antifreeze through the washing machine so any residual water doesn't freeze and break the pump. Finally, I drain water from refridgerator icemaker line since I one time had a fitting for the icemaker water supply freeze and break.

I have a Blink security system at each property where I can monitor temperatures and if there is any motion inside the house it sends a video clip to the cloud and sends me an alert.

[marko]

Quote:

Originally Posted by skipro33 For that matter, I have a home weather system with sensors in my freezer and fridge. When alarm levels are met, my cloud based weather dashboard will text and e-mail with the event. .

This is a good idea! We have them throughout the house monitoring room temperatures but now I'll have to get one for the fridge, even though it's fairly new.

[Music Lover]

A Wi-Fi thermostat is a good investment as it allows you to remotely monitor the house temperature. We went south for 5 weeks over the winter and I set it to 14C (about 57F) and regularly checked the temperature. When we were on the way home I remotely increased the temperature so we would come home to a warm house.

That being said, it's a good idea and probably a requirement by your insurance company to have someone regularly check on the house.

[skipro33]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb4uski At my mom's place, I can easily blow out the domestic water pipes by putting a shop vac exhaust on the outside hose spigots and opening up all faucets.

How do you know it's through all water spigots and toilets throughout the house? Seems to me, the first one blown clean would be the path of least resistance for all the other traps under sinks and toilets remaining. Perhaps when one blows clear, it's plugged somehow and the vac exhaust is allowed to push against the next least resistance line. And so on and so on.

[pb4uski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by skipro33 How do you know it's through all water spigots and toilets throughout the house? Seems to me, the first one blown clean would be the path of least resistance for all the other traps under sinks and toilets remaining. Perhaps when one blows clear, it's plugged somehow and the vac exhaust is allowed to push against the next least resistance line. And so on and so on.

I feel air coming through each faucet. Also, she has an unfinished basement and the pipes are accessible and there are a couple drains in the supply pipes at low spots that I open once most of the water is out. While I haven't needed to do it, I could close one faucet at a time once the shop vac is blowing air through the pipes to mitigate the least resistance issue that you wrote about. The pipes don't really need to be totally dry... it is ok if there is a little residual water as long as it has room to expand when it freezes... that is why I leave all valves open during the winter.. so any freezing water can expand without breaking anything.

I've use this process annually for over 15 years without any problems.

For the toilets and drains, I suck up the toilets and blow out drains and then fill the toilet bowls and traps with RV antifreeze.

[whitet]

Thank you to all who have replied. What a wealth of great information!

[whitet]

For those of you who keep the heat on, do you have emergency generators to handle extended power outages? We have gas heat, but without power to run the fan, the heat will not circulate.

[rk911]

Quote:

Originally Posted by whitet For those of you who keep the heat on, do you have emergency generators to handle extended power outages? We have gas heat, but without power to run the fan, the heat will not circulate.

yes. and we are 'sposed to get a text from the power company when the power goes out (we don't) but we do get a text when the genny runs. we had a 60.5-hr power outage this past January and the genny hummed along flawlessly. we were an island of light in the blacked-out neighborhood. I offered a 20-amp circuit to the neighbors on either side. the one neighbor had a newborn so they evacuated to a family's house. when I asked the other neighbor what his plans were...lights, fridge, etc. he said, "heck, no! the kids are driving me nuts. I'm hooking up the TV and satellite!!"