When you go away in travel do you shut the water off?

[Anonymous]

Yes. Went away for a weekend in the summer and came home to a flooded basement and water turned off by WSSC b/c a neighbor saw it pouring out of the house...random pipe broke, would have been fine if we were home on a normal schedule, not okay for days. Water is ALWAYS off now if I am away even overnight. I am maybe a bit psychotic about it.
Heat goes to 55 and AC to 90. We have the nest thermometer so we activate it prior to coming home so the house is a comfortable temp when we arrive.

[Anonymous]

I turn off the water (main shut off). I've had too many plumbing problems when I'm home to want to have them when I am away.
I turn down the gas water heater to "Vacation".
I turn the heat/ AC up or down depending on the season.

[Anonymous]

For you people who do not turn off water.. Did you never see "Home Alone"?

[Anonymous]

Sometimes. I usually leave on a sink or two for when the neighbors come in to check. I turn off the icemaker and washer.

[Anonymous]

Yes. I have had the hose to the washer blow in one house and last year the connection to our kitchen sink blew. Had we not been home either time, we would have had significant water damage.

[Anonymous]

How do you turn off the water to the whole house?
PP, how do you turn off the water but leave a couple of sinks on?

[Anonymous]

Keep the heat above 60 if you don't want a pipe burst

[Anonymous]

Wow, if temperatures go below 0 isn't bad to have all the water shut off?

[Anonymous]

I turn off the water to the toilets and turn off the icemaker but leave the water to the sink on and the heat at 65, but we have pets and a petsitter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keep the heat above 60 if you don't want a pipe burst

Why? Not only would a house at 55 be well above freezing, but even if you lost heat, the temperature would have to drop well below 32 outside, for several days, before you would have to worry about pipes freezing in most houses (or so said our HVAC guy when we had him in once when our boiler needed work in the winter).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Keep the heat above 60 if you don't want a pipe burst

Why? Not only would a house at 55 be well above freezing, but even if you lost heat, the temperature would have to drop well below 32 outside, for several days, before you would have to worry about pipes freezing in most houses (or so said our HVAC guy when we had him in once when our boiler needed work in the winter).

Pipes are in the walls and drywall blocks a lot of the inside heat.

[Anonymous]

For a weekend - I don't turn off the water (probably should). For a longer trip I do. I had a pipe randomly burst on me (yes - literally on me in the bathroom) and it would have flooded the basement if I hadn’t turned off the main immediately. I’ve known others who had burst pipes while away on vacation and it wasn’t pretty. I really don’t want to come back from vacation to something like that.

I used to adjust the heat/ac but don’t anymore. First, we have a pet. Second, I wonder what the break even is for lowing heat/raising AC. It’s easier/less expensive for your home to maintain the temp then to get back to where you want it to be. I’ve seen arguments for both methods, but am not sure what the right thing to do is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For a weekend - I don't turn off the water (probably should). For a longer trip I do. I had a pipe randomly burst on me (yes - literally on me in the bathroom) and it would have flooded the basement if I hadn’t turned off the main immediately. I’ve known others who had burst pipes while away on vacation and it wasn’t pretty. I really don’t want to come back from vacation to something like that.

I used to adjust the heat/ac but don’t anymore. First, we have a pet. Second, I wonder what the break even is for lowing heat/raising AC. It’s easier/less expensive for your home to maintain the temp then to get back to where you want it to be. I’ve seen arguments for both methods, but am not sure what the right thing to do is.

This is totally false and checking any reputable web site (DOE, the National Labs, etc) will demonstrate this.

If I shut off my heater or air conditioner when I'm gone from the house, doesn't it cost more to heat or cool the house back to the right temperature once I return?
The rate of heat transfer from the house to the outside, or vice versa, is dependent partly on the temperature difference between the house and outside. More heat is transferred when the difference is greater, so it takes more energy to keep the house at 72°F when it is 40°F outside than to heat the house back up to 72°F after you return.
With air conditioning systems, the equipment runs at peak efficiency when it operates for long periods. Cooling the house back to the comfortable temperature will use less electricity than the unit would use cycling on and off for short periods to maintain the set temperature.
http://www.hes.lbl.gov/consumer/faqs#h7

A common misconception associated with thermostats is that a furnace works harder than normal to warm the space back to a comfortable temperature after the thermostat has been set back, resulting in little or no savings. In fact, as soon as your house drops below its normal temperature, it will lose energy to the surrounding environment more slowly. The lower the interior temperature, the slower the heat loss. So the longer your house remains at the lower temperature, the more energy you save, because your house has lost less energy than it would have at the higher temperature. The same concept applies to raising your thermostat setting in the summer -- a higher interior temperature will slow the flow of heat into your house, saving energy on air conditioning.
http://energy.gov/energysaver/articles/thermostats

[Anonymous]

Wow, pp, you keep your house at 72???

I don't think people are saying they go away for weeks and keep the house at 72 while they are gone. I think they re saying more like they turn the heat to 62 and the ac to 77.

We never turned the water off in my old house growing up but it sounds like a Good idea. I wonder why we didn't ? We had radiator heat, does that need water to work? We did leave several taps dripping.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, pp, you keep your house at 72???

I don't think people are saying they go away for weeks and keep the house at 72 while they are gone. I think they re saying more like they turn the heat to 62 and the ac to 77.

We never turned the water off in my old house growing up but it sounds like a Good idea. I wonder why we didn't ? We had radiator heat, does that need water to work? We did leave several taps dripping.

You are the second person here that's mentioned this, I haven't heard of this before, why is this done?