Heating on whilst away, in winter?

[loveawineloveacrisp]

Bit of a boring thread, sorry. I'm away on holiday and I can see from my Nest app how cold my house is (about 13 degrees). Would you put the heating on

Your post was confusing because OP does have a Nest and you hadn’t mentioned that you hadn’t.

Sorry, yes, you're right finger. That was me not quite paying attention at the start 😳.

I always do.

Pipes freeze when the temperature is around freezing, so no. Basic physics innit.

Why would the pipes freeze at 13 degrees?

@Bjorkdidit we have all the smart stuff turned off as it was coming on in the middle of the night. But I'll just whack it up from my app when we board our flight home at the weekend.

Ours used to drop down to 13 in the evenings most of the winter, before we had the roof re-insulated. It was fine. No frozen pipes or respiratory problems.

It seems like a false economy to me not to keep the house above freezing point . Also the worry of anything happening would weigh heavily on me tbh .

It's well above freezing point. Currently showing as 13.

Your pipes are not going to freeze at 13 degrees. Just leave your heating on frost setting.

Well it ain’t going to freeze at 13 deg is
it. It will be fine unless a hard freeze is forecast

I set mine at 12 if I’m away for a couple of weeks. I turn it back up before I get on the flight home and it usually has the temperature up to normal by the time I walk through the door.

Unless you have a strangely insulated house where the thermostat reading 13 means some parts are actually literally at 0 or below (and I accept some people might), I think this is fine.

If in doubt just put heating on if you can. My neighbour was away last Christmas and had a frozen burst pipe, neighbours only checked on house 4 hours previously. 7 months she was in rented accommodation and house was only just fully completed before Christmas, and she’s away at the moment and her heating has been left on timer and thermostat, you wouldn’t wish what she went through as the burst pipe was in the loft, it destroyed virtually everything inside. Yes, she was insured and everything was covered, but the hassle of arranging all the tradespeople, furniture etc was full on for most of the year.

It is appreciated by us lot if the heating is on at a moderate temperature in empty properties.

Rummaging about in the cold is a thankless task - although we do wear gloves, of course.

Our bedroom has been regularly 12 - 13° this winter. We haven't frozen and nor have the pipes in the bathroom next door, where it's probably less than that. Your boiler will kick in itself if it feels there's a likelihood. Just don't forget to put it back on well before you get home. I accidentally switched the boiler off all together when we were away one Christmas. It felt like it took days to get the house back to normal.

I have bitter experience of this. It depends where your pipes run and where your thermostat is.

So an insulated house can be 12/13 degrees inside even when it's just below zero outside. Especially in a warm spot of a house which is where a lot of thermostats are. But a lot of houses have pipes that run through uninsulated areas and these areas can freeze. Some places have pipes them above insulation in the loft etc. Lots are lagged but some get missed.