[Oistrakh12]

I’ll be away from Vegas for 2.5 weeks around Christmas time. Was wondering if I should keep the heat on in my house, or turn it off?

[ddrhazy]

I would leave the thermostat at 62 and shut off the water and drain all the water from the pipes before you leave.

[RationalExpectations]

As ddrhazy said, I would leave the thermostat at 62.

Actually, I would install WiFi thermostat(s) so I could turn the heat back up about 4 hours before I returned home.

I wouldn't drain the water from pipes, although that is certainly not a bad thing to do. I would, however, go into the garage and turn off the ball valves thereby turning water off to everything inside the house. I'd cover the antisiphon valve for the irrigation system with an insulation blanket.

The valve looks like this:

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/09...g?v=1571439472

and the insulation blanket looks like this and can be purchased at a nursery or Home Depot or online:

https://www.amazon.com/Insulated-Pro...df_B07Z7D5HMJ/

Hint: secure the insulation blanket with a padlock.

[Cold Warrior]

Shut off the water and the fire sprinklers are useless.

[Teacher Terry]

We put the heat at 55 when out of town.

[RationalExpectations]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior

Shut off the water and the fire sprinklers are useless.

The way my house is plumbed, when I shut off the water to the house via the ball valves in the garage, that does NOT shut off water to the fire sprinklers. The fire sprinkler shut-off valve is behind a panel in the garage.

[bayview6]

Depends upon how well your house is insulated. In my case, I turn off the heat and turn off the water.

[lvmensch]

Originally Posted by bayview6

Depends upon how well your house is insulated. In my case, I turn off the heat and turn off the water.

I would be careful with all that. If you actually drain the system it will work. But if you have a column of water stuck anywhere and get a real bad cold snap you can still come back to busted pipes. And when you turn the water back on you get an unpleasant surprise.

Again inexpensive to keep the house in the low 60s or even 50s. But I would be careful about no heat.

[bayview6]

Originally Posted by lvmensch

I would be careful with all that. If you actually drain the system it will work. But if you have a column of water stuck anywhere and get a real bad cold snap you can still come back to busted pipes. And when you turn the water back on you get an unpleasant surprise.

Again inexpensive to keep the house in the low 60s or even 50s. But I would be careful about no heat.

In most cases here with houses with attic ventilation, I would agree with you but all my water pipes are inside the insulation. My attic has the insulation directly under the roof decking and there is no attic ventilation. But I do think that in the winter I will leave the heat on at 50F just in case we have that once in 500 years cold spell.

[Coolair]

There is a thing that whenever leaving a house for vacation do not turn off the heat completely in winter. Lower it though to keep your home safe from dampness. New smart air conditioners have special function for these purposes that can be controlled from an app even when you are away.