To ask a house maintenance question (that I should probably know the answer to)

I wouldn't touch the stopcock if just going away for a week, we've gone away for 3 weeks before and didn't cross my mind. Don't fiddle around with stuff that works just fine.

We’ve had power cuts and the boiler just comes back on as normal when power returns .

Turning everything off is far more dangerous than leaving the system running as normal, because of the risks of your pipes freezing .

If you have a nest system, can you programme it from an app on your phone?

If so I would look for holiday mode, or otherwise set the thermostat to be a constant temperature of around 10 degrees. You can turn the hot water off, and turn it back on when you return .

If you turn the stopcock off then then you may as well leave the boiler off - it's going to struggle to heat the house with no water...

I think OP isnt keen on the boiler firing up when she's not there. Can see why it would be a problem though.

The stopcock should be turned off if going away for a week though. You dont leave a car with the engine running.

Just put it down to something around 7 or 8. If it doesn't go below 10, that's effectively off. If it does, you've saved your pipes freezing. You're massively overthinking this!

Do you have a holiday mode on your control panel? Nothing is going to explode you will just waste money heating things that you don’t need

Need a bit more info!

Is it a pressurised system? Does your hot water come out as fast as your cold?

The key question really is do you have any water in your loft? If not then the chances of freezing are next to nothing.

What sort of system is it? Old fashioned with tanks in loft or is it pressurised like a Megaflow system?

Leave it on. Although it is unlikely. If it gets cold enough for pipes to freeze while you are away and then there is a burst your insurance may not cover you if you have turned it all off.

Hot water - this won't be a problem, but as others have said it is a bit of a waste of money. But it won't break anything if you leave it on.

Heating - leave this on, but set to somewhere between 8-10 degrees. Sixteen is too high, but 8-10 will take the edge off a frost.

Also, when you get back, another thing to learn would be how to turn your water/stop cock off, you do need to know this. But not right now.

Enjoy your week away

Is it your house or do you rent? If you rent, there's probably something in your contract about leaving the heating on low if you go away.

If you own, and you can afford to replace everything when the pipes burst, go ahead and switch it off!

Seriously, it's winter, the temperature can plummet suddenly. Only turn the heating off if you also totally drain the system. I had the water pipes burst in the loft in a flat when I was living in it (no heating other than a gas fire), I'd never want to go through that again.

Personally I wouldn’t take the risk of turning heating off altogether in winter though. Pipes bursting is a big deal big mess
and expensive.

It won’t explode ! But as others say you will be paying your heat hot water you don’t need to heat.

heating : either turn it way down (to like 7, 8, whatever I’d you’re worried about pipes freezing, which is a legitimate concern depending where you live), or just turn it off if you’re confident it won’t get that cold.

Don't ever switch the heating off completely in winter. My friend's pipes all burst over Christmas and I'll never forget the state of his house afterwards. Water running down the light fittings, into the microwave etc. Took 6 months to get it all back to normal and all because he was too tight to leave the heating on low. It might be mild when you go away but the temp can unexpectedly plummet in just a few hours.

This. Look on the controller for a manufacturer/number and then google that. You'll get an instruction book explaining what you can do.

You're unlikely to have any problems unless your house has unheated outbuildings with a water supply. A normal square-ish house should stay above freezing in normal UK temperatures for a week.

If you put the Nest on 9 degrees then you are effectively "switching it off". The heating will not come on unless it goes down to 9 degrees, which you've said is very unlikely. So that is all you need to do, it will be "off" the whole time.

Do you have a lofty/ if so, open the hatch before you go away so that some warmer air gets up there. Otherwise the pipes might freeze and burst when you come back

If it's set to 7 it won't come on unless it drops below 7, so why would you not just leave it on that?

It probably won't go that low, but if it does it'll stop your pipes freezing and save you a huge plumber bill.

I would turn off the hot water as there's no point wasting gas just to heat a cylinder that wont get used.

I presume it is an old style system with tanks in the loft? Or is a modern system, pressurised?

If its old style I would leave the heating on something like 8 degrees so it probably wont ever kick in, and leave the loft hatch open.

If its a modern system under pressure with no water in the loft I'd switch it off. The house isn't going to freeze up.