The Lemon Fool

If you were going away for a month in the winter, what temperature would you set your heating at, in order to not only avoid possible frozen pipes, but also keep the property "aired" and avoid any damp issues?

We live in a mid floor flat, so I would think, it could almost be left off, or at a very low setting, but from the perspective of keeping the property aired and avoiding damp clothes in wardrobes or suchlike, I was thinking about 12C night time and 14C day time (based on a thermostat located in the living room).

PS. The property is in the southern part of England, where temperatures don't often get below freezing.

Hard to imagine a mid-floor flat freezing, unless your surrounding neighbours all go away and turn their heating off.
I'd say a steady 10C would be fine.

Does the flat ever feel damp? Do you have a hygrometer? (humidity meter). In a modern building, around 50% RH would be routine, or less, https://www.amazon.co.uk/humidity-meter/s?k=humidity+meter and in that case, no damp worries.

V8

richfool wrote:If you were going away for a month in the winter, what temperature would you set your heating at, in order to not only avoid possible frozen pipes, but also keep the property "aired" and avoid any damp issues?

We live in a mid floor flat, so I would think, it could almost be left off, or at a very low setting, but from the perspective of keeping the property aired and avoiding damp clothes in wardrobes or suchlike, I was thinking about 12C night time and 14C day time (based on a thermostat located in the living room).

PS. The property is in the southern part of England, where temperatures don't often get below freezing.

There's no need to have it warmer during the day; that's a convention based on humans preferring it to be a bit cooler at night for sleeping.

If there's no one in the place there's not going to be much moisture in the air to condense; but you could consider a desiccant block in the wardrobe if you're worried about clothes - it would dry out any residual stuff at the start.

I would probably set it around 6deg
- it'll be your upstairs neighbour that notices most

Set it to 8 or 10C, daytime only, off at night.
Open wardrobe, drawers, doors, etc and leave some windows on vent at either side of the flat.

Paul

Personally (town house) I just turn the water (and gas) off at the main stop-cock, leave the electricity on with light timers. More fearful of a burst water pipe damage than the cold. Haven't noticed any damp issues doing so, I guess if I did a small timed electric blower heater(s) could be used instead of leaving both gas and water running (assuming gas central heating).

servodude wrote:I would probably set it around 6deg

Yep. Ample to avoid burst pipes, and no need for any timer changes.

As for damp, with noone in there, where's it going to come from? If you have trickle vents, they'll keep the place aired.

Though come to think of it, burning gas generates damp (hydrocarbons --> water + CO2), so perhaps better to turn it off altogether.

UncleEbenezer wrote:
As for damp, with noone in there, where's it going to come from? If you have trickle vents, they'll keep the place aired.

Though come to think of it, burning gas generates damp (hydrocarbons --> water + CO2), so perhaps better to turn it off altogether.

If your boiler vents into your flat then condensation is the least of your concerns

Paul

DrFfybes wrote:

UncleEbenezer wrote:
As for damp, with noone in there, where's it going to come from? If you have trickle vents, they'll keep the place aired.

Though come to think of it, burning gas generates damp (hydrocarbons --> water + CO2), so perhaps better to turn it off altogether.

If your boiler vents into your flat then condensation is the least of your concerns

Paul

Not all boilers vent straight into the flat or house. Some have a dedicated flue to take all that nasty water vapour and CO2 directly to outside. Amazing what they can do nowadays innit!

My brother is regularly away from his middle floor flat and the insurance states that the thermostat must be set at a minimum of 15C.

Beseeinyou

beseeinyou wrote:My brother is regularly away from his middle floor flat and the insurance states that the thermostat must be set at a minimum of 15C.

Beseeinyou

If my insurance said that, I'd be looking to change provider!

It's a combi-boiler, that vents through an outside wall. It doesn't need any other ventilation.

We have trickle vents and I would partly open a couple of those. The flats above and below would be heated.

Mike4 wrote:

DrFfybes wrote:

UncleEbenezer wrote:
As for damp, with noone in there, where's it going to come from? If you have trickle vents, they'll keep the place aired.

Though come to think of it, burning gas generates damp (hydrocarbons --> water + CO2), so perhaps better to turn it off altogether.

If your boiler vents into your flat then condensation is the least of your concerns

Paul

Not all boilers vent straight into the flat or house. Some have a dedicated flue to take "all" that nasty water vapour and CO2 directly to outside. Amazing what they can do nowadays innit!

All? Or most?

People are advised to have carbon monoxide detectors, in case of boiler malfunction (and don't you folks test CO when servicing a boiler?) Some water vapour and/or CO2 into the home would be a whole lot less serious.

UncleEbenezer wrote:

Mike4 wrote:

DrFfybes wrote:

UncleEbenezer wrote:
As for damp, with noone in there, where's it going to come from? If you have trickle vents, they'll keep the place aired.

Though come to think of it, burning gas generates damp (hydrocarbons --> water + CO2), so perhaps better to turn it off altogether.

If your boiler vents into your flat then condensation is the least of your concerns

Paul

Not all boilers vent straight into the flat or house. Some have a dedicated flue to take "all" that nasty water vapour and CO2 directly to outside. Amazing what they can do nowadays innit!

All? Or most?

People are advised to have carbon monoxide detectors, in case of boiler malfunction (and don't you folks test CO when servicing a boiler?) Some water vapour and/or CO2 into the home would be a whole lot less serious.

Most.

Water heaters under 12 kW (or it might bee 11kW, I can't remember without looking it up) do not need a flue, they can vent straight into the room. Few do but the flue is not mandatory.

Curiously yes we check the CO:CO2 ratio on modern room sealed boilers during a service using a gas analyser, but this is not mandatory on flueless, older or open flued appliances.

If your thermostat is a battery powered wireless model - change the batteries before you go away.

DAMHIK

Watis

Watis wrote:If your thermostat is a battery powered wireless model - change the batteries before you go away.

DAMHIK

Watis

Thanks. Good point.

richfool wrote:If you were going away for a month in the winter, what temperature would you set your heating at, in order to not only avoid possible frozen pipes, but also keep the property "aired" and avoid any damp issues?

We live in a mid floor flat, so I would think, it could almost be left off, or at a very low setting, but from the perspective of keeping the property aired and avoiding damp clothes in wardrobes or suchlike, I was thinking about 12C night time and 14C day time (based on a thermostat located in the living room).

PS. The property is in the southern part of England, where temperatures don't often get below freezing.

Some have a frost setting on the trv, I think it's about 5 degrees. If you have a timer you could do that for most of the day with a heat cycle for half an hour in the morning and or evening.

I think Tado can do things from your phone whilst away if you want to get clever

richfool wrote:If you were going away for a month in the winter, what temperature would you set your heating at, in order to not only avoid possible frozen pipes, but also keep the property "aired" and avoid any damp issues?

We live in a mid floor flat, so I would think, it could almost be left off, or at a very low setting, but from the perspective of keeping the property aired and avoiding damp clothes in wardrobes or suchlike, I was thinking about 12C night time and 14C day time (based on a thermostat located in the living room).

PS. The property is in the southern part of England, where temperatures don't often get below freezing.

I'd say about 3C tops.

AiY(D)

So much depends on the details of the heating system.

With my heating system I can confidently set the thermostat to say 6C. As long as house remains warmer than that just as little (i.e. none) gas will be burned as if it were turned off. There's no point in turning the heating off, or faffing with timers while in frost prevention mode. I don't even bother to turn it off in the summer, just set it back to a temperature where if it comes on I want it to come on.

On the other hand, if you have a defective or obsolescent system with a pilot light or that runs a pump continually rather than on demand or any number of other silly things you might gain something by turning it off.

Also don't forget the hot water, it is worth turning that off if you're away for a month. For a true on-demand system you won't have to do anything (no-demand means no fuel cost) but there are a lot of storage or quasi-on-demand systems that consume power on standby.