When we are gone for an extended period we turn the heat down to 55 and turn down the hot water heater. We don’t turn off the water as we have a home watch service and they comes through and run the water and flush the toilets. If you don’t run the water the drain traps can empty and odor can seep in.

Turn off the water and turn down the heat in winter turn up the AC in summer. Always

Anonymous wrote:Fwiw, it's bad for older pipes to shut off and turn on the main water. It's to be avoided if at all possible.

op here. our pipes our brand new. i think that's why dh thinks nothing will happen.

Anonymous wrote:Um, shut off the water and lower the heat to maybe 60-65. You don't want things to freeze if it gets cold.

Why heat a vacant house to 65?

Fwiw, it's bad for older pipes to shut off and turn on the main water. It's to be avoided if at all possible.

I shut it off in the summer and leave it on in the winter for both water and hot water heater

Um, shut off the water and lower the heat to maybe 60-65. You don't want things to freeze if it gets cold.

Anonymous wrote:We don’t turn off the water when we travel.

Pp again. We leave heat/ac on, too. But we have pets and people coming by a few times a day to care for them.

We don’t turn off the water when we travel.

We generally dont turn off water but my parents do anytime they leave for more than 2 days.
I should probably know my central water shutoff system better
Heat stays on but a bit lower.

No, we do not, especially during a cold snap. If you have exposed pipes, either run them at a slow drip or shut those off and empty them. Otherwise, we leave the heat on, maybe slightly lower but not much.

We have wood furniture, including antiques, as well as acoustic instruments that are best with a consistent temperature and humidity. So we run the HVAC, including the humidifier/dehumidifier, as usual.

YES. 10000000000%. Unbelievable people don’t shut off their water when traveling. Heat stays on but lower.

Our neighbor went to the beach for 3 weeks. At some point her toilet line burst. She came home to find tremendous amounts of water damage due to multiple days/weeks of running water in the home upstairs from the burst line.

You can only imagine the nightmare in repairs and cost required to fix it. None of it covered by insurance of course. Always, always shut off the water and drain the lines when traveling for multiple days.

We don’t turn off anything, but turn our heat down to 60 in the winter and up to 80 in the summer. In our summer house, which is empty for much longer stretches, we turn off the hot water heater, turn off the water, and turn the heat down to 55.

You absolutely need the heat on.

Shut off water.

I'm the same person who is going abroad for a month. We moved form Miami Florida. We have no idea what's the norm. Husband wants to shut off everything because our house is new construction and he thinks it's built to be fine without leaving these things on. It's going to be freezing this week in particular and we leave tomorrow.