Reliable home heating during absences

I live in Wyoming.
Baseboard heaters will be your cheapest route. The other option is a propane stove that looks like a wood stove and centrally located and some fans to move the air from room to room. I have a Thelin like this that heats our whole house.
http://thelinco.com/product/parlour-...ent-gas-stove/ You can run it by thermostat.

I unplug the well pump, then I open up all my faucets and let everything drain and then leave them open until I return. This way if anything does freeze, it will have room to expand and it won't crack the pipe... I had no problem last year with some really hard freezes.

I use the anti-freeze too in the toilet and sink and tub traps...

It's much cheaper than leaving heat on when you aren't there, and it's pretty much fool proof... If anything happens to your heat while you're gone, then it's kind of pointless to have not drained everything in the first place..

It takes me 10 minutes to drain everything and add the anti-freeze... All it takes when I get back is turn off the faucets and plug the well back in.

__________________
Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit

A couple of comments. Heat tapes are notorious for catching on fire.... and yes, fiberglass insulation will burn.

Draining the water lines doesn't always work as well as people say. Sometimes one will get congested spots, even if they blow them out with pressure from an air tank. PVC lines seem to take a bit better to freezing in spots than copper or iron pipe do.

I would think gas heat would be best, as long as you don't need electricity to operate it. Especially if you have a large tank that is filled by a supply company automatically. I don't think I am familiar with any non-electric thermostat operated gas heaters, but that doesn't mean there aren't any. I haven't used gas space heaters for a number of years.

I have free gas, so I could leave my heaters running as much as I want and it would cost me nothing... However, if the well happens to run out of gas (such as the owner didn't get it pumped) then I have a good chance of my pipes freezing... Also, I just don't trust fire when I'm not there... I've had one place burn, I don't want to see that happen again..

BTW, my heaters are wall units that need no electric to operate..

I just feel draining pipes is a safer bet... and if one does crack, you'll be there to know as soon as you do turn the water back on..

Heating a place while gone isn't fool proof... draining pipes is a lot safer..

__________________
Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit

Whatever you end up doing, turn off the main water supply valve to the house so that water doesn't run for days if a pipe does break.

Letting your house freeze has other issues than pipes. Stuff in your refrigerator will freeze and jars will break. Plants will die. Stuff in your pantry will freeze and perhaps break. Beer and pop cans will break.

Rennai makes a great stand alone heater. It does need power. There are a few other direct vent heaters as well. Unvented heaters put out about one gallon of water per every 100.000 btu's burned.

Heat tapes are only going to work if the power is on, what if the power is out for three days or so? Pipes will burst, that is what will happen.

On second thought - maybe you shouldn't leave - stay there -

Water, who needs water!

PVC pipe is actually the worst for breaking when frozen. Aske me how I know 3 or 4 times at least.

Am changing over to PEX, which really is flexible, and less likely to rupture.

Propane would likely be your best bet.

If all your connections are tight, you won't have leaks and it won't catch on fire. Keep burnable stuff away from the heater.

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We will meet in the golden city, called the New Jerusalem,
All our pain and all our tears will be no more.....

Thanks for the ideas. I was thinking about blowing my pipes out when I leave but if its not super easy to do,I wont do it!

I like the vented gas stoves like the Thelin. I think both ideas are good too. Drain the pipes and keep the heat on.

__________________
...to be a rock and not to roll...

Plus, below freezing temperatures could do some unpleasant things to the house. Wood will contract enough to loosen nails and cause squeaky floors. Drywall/gypsum/wallboard could shrink and pop nails. I've bought a couple of foreclosure homes that had been repo'ed, and which had been left to stand through a couple of winters with no heat (and summers without a/c). Created all kinds of interesting issues to deal with as we rehabbed.

A friend of ours lost his custom kitchen cabinents due to letting his 'under construction' house freeze. He thinks that the moisture content was such that everything warped and glue popped. Had some problems with tile popping too.

Hi,
I'd think about working out a way to let the house go cold when you are not there.

I used to be part of a volunteer ski lodge in the mountains that only got used on the weekends. When we left the lodge on Sunday afternoon there was a regular routine of opening all the faucets, opening a drain valve in the basement. draining the toilets, ... The lodge then sat in the cold with no heat until the next weekend. The lodge goes back to the 1920's and this procedure was used with minimal problems for all those years. No nail pops, or other structural problems. Your house goes through just as much of a temperature change in the summer when you leave in Wyoming -- it might get down to 40F at night and up to a 100F during the day, and you probably don't do anything to protect it from that?

The plumbing in this lodge was sloped for drainage, so to use the same sort of technique on a house, you might have to have a place you can hook up an air tank to to blow out the pipes. Dishwashers may take some special protection?

We had one fridge that was left on and it kept a few things cold during warmer times. I don't recall any problems with stuff freezing in the fridge in the winter, but there may have been some precautions taken there that I was not familiar with.

If you rely on the house being heated by a furnace or the like when you are away, sooner or later something will fail and the house will have no heat and you won't be there to take care of the problem. Power outages, fuel runs out, equipment fails, you forget to set it up before you leave -- something will eventually happen.

So, it may take some trial and error to work out a method to let the house go cold, but it may be worth it both in fuel saving and avoiding the time when something fails and the house goes cold anyway.

Just my 2 cents.

Gary

At minimum make sure that the water is off when you leave. Many remember to drain pipes and fixtures, tolets, water heaters and pour RV anifreeze in the traps but forget a water softener.