Shutting Down A House

[Johnny O]

My parents go to FL for the winter. Dad is complaining about the gas bill for his house here in PA. About $400 last month and it's been a pretty mild winter. I've got the boiler and water heater turned down as low as they will go. They have a pretty big, old, brick house with a steam boiler which is new. I'm thinking for next year I need to drain the pipes, toilets, dump pink RV antifreeze in all the drains and toilets, and have the heating company shut down and drain the boiler. I have a hot water boiler in my own house but I don't know anything about steam units. Anything else I need to know? Pros and cons?

 

[Richard L]

JohnnyO,

That sounds like a great question for "Ask This Old House".



My concern about shutting off all the heat is that the house might absorb moisture which could lead to the formation of mold.



...Rich

 

[Gary DiPietroSr]

Seems like you covered all the bases. You might want to check with a builder or sheetrocker that if it gets gets so cold in the house that you might get sheet rock damage.

 

[Johnny O]

It's old enough that it's got all plaster walls. My main concerns are paint, wallpaper, and corrosion in the heating system if I drain it. The other alternative is getting a digital thermostat that may go lower than the old-school dial unit they have and set the thing at 45* or 50*. To my way of thinking a steam boiler will use more energy to turn water into steam than simply heating up water like mine does, so I wonder if turning it any lower would really do much good.

I have told them several times in the past to sell the house and get something smaller and/or without stairs, but they won't listen to me.

 

[Chops]

Well at least they do the right thing and winter down here....



My electric bill last month was $83, but I have solar hot water.

 

[Bill V]

If you have building heat on (even low temp), why bother having the water heater turned on at all? The building heat will keep the lines from freezing, just like they keep the cold water lines from freezing. Or am I missing something?

 

[Johnny O]

Bill V....I've thought of that, may do it next year even if I leave the heat on. I figured the water heater probably doesn't run much since nobody is using any water and mostly it's just the pilot light on. Thing with shutting pilot lights off, especially in a basement, is that spiders are strangely attracted to the smell of gas. When a pilot light is off it's a virtual guarantee in this part of the country that a spider will crawl into the pilot light tube and die, and it's a bugger (pardon the pun) to get them out and relight the thing. OTOH, if I can save my dad $2000 in gas bills, then it's worth it.

 

[Gerald Pierce]

How old is the boiler? We rented a house once that had an old boiler and it was killing us... the neighbors put in a new one (identical house) and it dropped their bill in half.



Another possibility would be some sort of solar panel.... FIL had one that used the heated air from the panel through a heat exchanger to a) preheat the cold water going into the hot water heater (there was a strage tank that resembled a water heater) and b) to transfer heat to the inside of the house. It worked quit well untill the company that made it went out of business and he could no longer get parts....... but the idea is sound and I would think there are similar products on the market.





It was similar to figure 2 in this link except that the hot air from the collector went through a device similar to a radiator where it heated the water to the storage tank and had a diverter for the air to go into the house if supplemental heating was desired.

 

[Johnny O]

The boiler is only two years old.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

What temp did you have it set to kick on at? Seems to me that if you had it at about 48 deg, that unless the house is huge, and a barn, you shouldn't have paid much to heat it this last winter.



I would keep heat in her...even if just a small amount.



Another thing you can do is close off rooms and turn off radiators in rooms that have no water service (or water pipes running through them). That makes the whole system more efficient.



TJR

 

[Johnny O]

55* is as low as the thermostat will go. Somehow the basement gets real warm, I guess from the boiler throwing off heat, but I have to keep the door to the basement closed so the burglar alarm works, it has a sensor on that door. I'm leaning toward just shutting everything down, I think that's the only thing that will really work. They do that to empty houses that are for sale, so there must be a list of stuff to do.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

It's not that it can't be done, Johnny, it's just that Western PA winters can be really cold, and the whole house will settle to outside temps and stay that way all winter long. I would close it as a last resort, but that's me.



As for houses for sale, well I think that's a different story because that is often an indeterminant length of time, an empty house and a new owner that opens it up.



Your folks are gone what, two + months, tops?



Jury rig the basement door so it can stay open, close off rooms not needed, turn off water to toilets, etc, and flush them, and lower the temp to its very lowest, even if that means getting a new/better thermostat.



Oh and put shrinking plastic wrap on all the windows. I still can't believe a $400/month heating bill...most mine was this last year in Southeastern PA was $120.



That's my advice. That way you don't have to worry about things inside going through significant temp differences between day and night, and the condensation that can be associated with that in an old, closed house.



TJR