How to stop pipes freezing without central heating?

[VelvetLady88]

I moved into a flat in July which only has a storage heater in the living room & a heated towel rail in the bathroom. I am going to stay at my Dad's for 2 weeks & I'm worried about the pipes freezing. I can't afford to leave the heating on as it costs £100 a week. I will leave the heated towel rail on to provide some heat in the bathroom. I do use portable heaters in the bedroom but I don't want to leave these on unattended. Does anyone have any suggestions to prevent the pipes freezing?

Where in the country are you, and which floor is the flat on? You may not need to worry if you have neighbours above/below with heating on, as the temperature won't drop low enough to freeze anything.

I thought you could change the settings on storage heaters? So put them on a lower setting so they get less hot? I know that would still cost money but basically anything will be cheaper than a burst pipe...

I guess you could also switch off the main stopcock and then drain the water out by switching the taps on? Not sure if that would be a good idea or not.

I grew up without central heating and the pipes never froze. The first house I bought n 1987 didn't have central heating just two gas fires. The pipes didn't freeze. I think you have more of an issue in older houses if the pipework is on the outside.

Draining the water out as mentioned above is probably a good idea if you are concerned.

It's an old chilly ground floor tenement flat in Scotland. That's a good idea about draining the water out.