When to have heating on in empty house

[bigtallpurple]

Hi

We are renting out our house at the moment but we are currently between. No new ones lined up as yet. What times would you have the heating on whilst the house is empty? Obviously I don't want to waste money on the gas bill but would like to take some precautions to hopefully prevent burst pipes and damp. Would also want the house to seem a little more inviting when the agent is showing potential tenants round. It is absolutely freezing without any heating. There are radiators in all rooms and it's a gas combi-boiler (if that makes any difference? ).

TIA

Piglet John would probably be your best bet for answering this question.

But, I'll make an attempt: I'd aim to keep the inside of the house around hovering around 14 or 15 to prevent trouble with the pipes and also to avoid possible issues with damp/mildew. Are there carpets and drapes there?

Piglet John must keep himself really busy with numpties people like me asking questions on here . Thanks, Earlybird, so you'd keep the heating on constantly then? Well, to be triggered by the thermostat I mean. I hadn't thought of that. Not sure I trust the thermostat! We live several hours away so it wouldn't be possible to check it was all working OK. Yes, we have carpets and curtains.

I'd go for an hour at 4am and a couple of hours in the evening. With no-one moving curtains around you need to keep it warm, although with no-one breathing in it there wont be much damp.

check your insurance to see what has to be done while it is empty.

How long will it be empty for? You may need to check your insurance.
When my dad died and we were waiting for probate to sell his empty house the insurance company insisted on our turning off both the water and electricity if the house would be empty for more than 30 days. They also wanted someone to 'check' the house every week - luckily the estate agent agreed to do this - and wouldn't cover contents after 30 days either (which was actually OK as we'd emptied it by then)

That's the kind of timing I was thinking of special.

Insurance policy says something similar - it can be empty for 30 days before water etc has to be turned off. Similar requirements re checking the house too, and someone has to take photos of every external wall and roof every week or something! Let's hope the agent agrees to that. Well, actually, I hope we'll have tenants moving in before then but who knows? Hadn't noticed anything about not covering contents though - that could be a problem. Will look into it, thanks

are there TRVs on the radiators - as then you could set them low and leave the heating to keep the chill off as neede

Yes there are thermostatic valves on all the radiators (although we also have an electric Kickspace fan which blows out the heat from the central heating pipes - that's my understanding of it anyway!). So, if we presume I know nothing at all about such things (just to make this easier you understand ), I could set the temp on the thermostat to 14 degrees, turn the radiator valves down to 1, then either leave the boiler timer on constant (and place my trust in the thermostat - it wasn't installed when we lived there so no experience of it), or put the heating timer on for an hour or two in the morning and an hour or two in the evening. Does that sound OK?

be aware that contents means carpets, curtains and possibly the boiler. Ref other thread on here where the tenant stole the boiler!!

Contents might include the boiler?! Aargh. Let's hope we find tenants ASAP then

have a look at your insurance policy. When I had an empty house it had to be kept at 12C. Setting the room stat to 12 will generally achieve this. The TRVs may possibly go down to 5C so don't turn them right down.

Round here the temp has mostly been 8C night to 15C day, so the amount of fuel needed to keep the house a few degrees warmer is quite small, this is not a cold winter.

I strongly recommend turning the main stop cock off. I had a loft pipe freeze in an exceptionally cold winter. If you have a cold water tank in the loft, turn on the cold bath tap after you have turned off the stopcock. If a pipe does burst, there will be very little residual water to cause damage. Tanks do not freeze in the UK, but pipes do. Insulation will slow heat loss but will not prevent it, so insulated pipes will still freeze after a few days if they are in an unheated space.

If you have a modern condensing boiler, turn it to 60C which is the most economical temp.

Turn off the indoor or underground stopcock for your garden taps, and leave the garden tap open.

p.s.

When you have set the room stat to 12, leave the timer on Constant.

Wow, what a comprehensive reply, thanks Pigletjohn. Will get onto that ASAP. Not sure whether you're a flowers type of person but here are some anyway .

Thanks all