At what outside temperature could the pipes freeze? Can we get away with this…

[Skytheo]

We are midlands.. going away for 4 nights on Saturday and wondering whether we can leave the heating off! We don’t have a fancy system and so would prefer to just switch it off.

Couple of other things to consider:

• heating helps keep dampness at bay
• things will take a while you warn back up after you get home.

I'd be tempted to turn thr heating down, not off.

Thanks. @Bjorkdidit i honestly have no idea how to use it, I just switch it on or off at the thermostat. If I switch it off there will it still kick in if it is freezing?

If you have a water tank in the loft that no one can get to, it will need a clean. That's more of a concern than pipes freezing in 2c weather! X

I've never had a pipe freeze (not to say it won't happen, probably just jinxed myself 🙄)
When I had central heating installed in my old house, the installer put a copper pipe running up the outside of the house.
Apparently, it should have been inside.
That never froze either.
It went through the Beast from the East with no problems.
I'm in North Yorkshire.
However, if you're worried, leave your heating on low so it comes on it the temperature drops

Can't see anything of real concern for midlands weather over the next week or so but if you are concerned, just leave it on low.

Suffered badly with burst pipes when I bought my first house back in 85.
It was a doerupper and I didn't live there for several months, instead my Ddad and myself visited every day or so to do some work (no central heating, just gas fire & heaters). He advised we always turned the water off when we left as it was a horrible winter with the snow sitting on the ground for weeks🥶. One day we turned the water on and as the house warmed up we discovered we had seven burst pipes so the day was spent fixing them (luckily my Ddad was old school so could actually deal with it).
From that day, as well as turning off the water, we also drained down to prevent it happening again.
1930's semi with no cavity and metal framed single glazed windows, took some heating I can tell you!

“At what temperature could the pipes freeze..” well I’m going to go out on a limb and say any temp below 0degC.

Unless money is very tight I'd just leave it on.

If the boiler or controller is off, I'd doubt that it's going to switch on to respond to a temperature drop.

We have a Hive which I expect works a similar way to a Nest. There's an app that you download and use this to set the heating timer so it changes the temperature according to your lifestyle, budget, preferences etc.

Then you can also switch to frost protection when you're away, which won't heat an unoccupied house, but come on if the temperature goes below about 5 C, but unless the weather changes significantly I don't think there's a risk of frozen pipes.

So look at the app, loads easier and probably cheaper than manually switching the heating on and off.