Best way to avoid burst pipes over Christmas in unoccupied house?

J

Joe Nonety

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My house will be unoccupied for 2 weeks. The temperature outside has dropped to -5.5 degrees over the last couple of days.
I've gas central heating with separate timers for upstairs, downstairs and for water.
What's the best strategy for avoiding frozen/burst pipes while I'm not there?
- Central heating and hot water to come on twice a day
- Leave as is: no central heating or hot water to come on
- No central heating or hot water to come on and turn off water at mains.
- ???
 
Joe Nonety said:
...
- No central heating or hot water to come on and turn off water at mains.
- ???
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Turning off the water at the mains can be pretty pointless unless you drain all your tanks and pipes as well.

I'd suggest two one-hour blasts of heating each day if you're concerned.
 
Personally I would not leave the boiler unattended. My boiler (oil) just failed when the thermostat failed to shut it off and for some reason the emergency thermostat did not work either. The result was it started to boil, if I was not at home and able to shut it off, I don’t know what the outcome would have been.

As far as freezing goes you can add anti freeze to your primary circuit of your heating system and prevent the radiators etc freezing. + if you go away, turn the mains supply off and the hot and cold supply from the header tank (in the hot press).
Last year I was away for two weeks in February during the cold snap and was worried about freezing, there was no problem, I live in a semi and I think heat through the party wall next door would prevent the house from ever reaching zero degrees.
I am not a plumber, this is my personal view.
 
What about a Georgian office building which will be unoccupied over the Xmas?

I propose to give it a daily shot for an hour of Central Heating - it's gas heating.

What is the best time? around midnight?
 
There is no harm in shutting off the incoming mains just in case.

Also if you can easily get to it remove any insulation that may be under your cold water storage tank - this will let a bit more heat up at the tank from below "just in cases"
 
Our combi boiler is controlled by the thermostat in the hall. We just set that at 15 degrees when we are going away.
 
Learned the expensive way last year. I'm setting the heat on for 4 X 45 minute bursts throughtout the day/night
 
Niallers said:
Learned the expensive way last year. I'm setting the heat on for 4 X 45 minute bursts throughtout the day/night
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did a pipe inside burst from frezzing? That would be rare enough.

You can shut off mains outside and open outside tap or kitchen tap to drain.

I would time my heating to come on for an hour at around 6am and around midnight, not because I would be afraid of frezzing, but to keep the house from needing a big warm up on return.
 
DavyJones said:
did a pipe inside burst from frezzing? That would be rare enough.

You can shut off mains outside and open outside tap or kitchen tap to drain.

I would time my heating to come on for an hour at around 6am and around midnight, not because I would be afraid of frezzing, but to keep the house from needing a big warm up on return.
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We got a call from the neigbours of a house we own, earlier today to be told that the smoke alarm was going off and when they looked in the letter box they could hear water running. So we had a burst pipe so it does happen. As it was a middle house in a row of town houses we felt it would be ok but unfortunatly not. I am also a little worried about insurance as it is a house we have rented out and the tennents left 2 weks ago so it was unoccupied. I am not sure if this creates an issue. What things do we need to do to start the dry out proccess . It is not a great way to spend my few days off over Christmas. We will not be able to contact insurance co until Tuesday so should we do much mopping up or what. Any other tips greatly needed
 
Woke up christmas morning to the sound of water in the house next door. Neighbours gone away for few days over xmas. Couldn't gain entry as I had no key. Had the terrible task of contacting them by phone. They had to make two hour drive back on treacherous roads. Terrible damage done to ceilings and floors. Not a pleasant christmas for them. Morale of the story - leave spare key with a neighbour or relative who can monitor the situation.
 
Personally I would not leave the boiler unattended. My boiler (oil) just failed when the thermostat failed to shut it off and for some reason the emergency thermostat did not work either. The result was it started to boil, if I was not at home and able to shut it off, I don’t know what the outcome would have been.
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It would have probably gone through the roof
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWnL8SipXT8

Switching the mains water off does have the advantage that if pipes do burst, you'll only get one cistern full of water flood the house.

 
Huge amounts of heat seems to be lost in less well insulated properties [our own] through windows with curtains "open".

At the risk of emphasising that the place is unoccupied, close the curtains.

Set the hearing for at least 1.5 hours morning and evening.

Perhaps once more at midday and at say 4:00 am.

If you have the 4-slot option, I'd say use it.

You're trying to avoid freezing conditions.

After that its down to luck.

ONQ.
 
What about leaving light on in the attic if you have one or leaving trap door slightly open?
 
In a well built house the pipes should be well lagged which is a great deterrent from frozen pipes I notice where I live some houses suffered a loss of water coming in from the mains due to frozen pipes.They do not get any sun as the are shaded by a forest. Our house is south facing and is one of the few on our road that gets the full effect when the sun is shining, especially this time of the year, so I reckon that warms up the house, hence, we leave curtains open while away! I had heating coming on for 2 hours from 5 til 7 and house was quite warm when we came back. I notice one poster said he had problems with his boiler and had he left it on it would have caused problems. However, that is a chance you take when you leave heating on but I would prefer to take the chance rather than face frozen pipes.
 
Mopsy said:
In a well built house the pipes should be well lagged which is a great deterrent from frozen pipes I notice where I live some houses suffered a loss of water coming in from the mains due to frozen pipes.
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That was my experience over Christmas - water froze in the outdoor pipes and I had to wait until the temps rose enough to defrost them (day and a half later). One tip I was given to help minimise the likelihood of outdoor freezing is to keep the water flowing by leaving a tap on (not full blast, a trickle should do).
 
gipimann said:
That was my experience over Christmas - water froze in the outdoor pipes and I had to wait until the temps rose enough to defrost them (day and a half later). One tip I was given to help minimise the likelihood of outdoor freezing is to keep the water flowing by leaving a tap on (not full blast, a trickle should do).
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When the freezing is relentless for a week, you've got to work out if the trickle will freeze in the outlet, blocking it, filling the sink and eventually pouring over. Unlikely but possible.
 
Leaving a tap on is only something I'd do if I'm around to keep an eye on it, but thanks for the tip Capt. B!
 
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