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You can get an old school mechanical thermostat as a backup. I've suffered a total frozen house disaster in a past place - most of the plumbing wrecked - becaus

You can get an old school mechanical thermostat as a backup. I've suffered a total frozen house disaster in a past place - most of the plumbing wrecked - because of a heat failure during the Christmas break (gas valve in that case though; a mechanical thermostat wouldn't have helped). That's what started the obsession with remote temperature monitoring - I was into DS18B20s before they were cool - and from there it was only a little bit more hacking to just take control as well (so I can control it over the internet the way I like it - ssh!)

ghaff 6y ago
I have a couple different temperature monitors. Of course, doesn't necessarily do a lot of good unless I can get someone to do something. And that may not be possible if they're not around or if there's not anything they reasonably can do. As in your example. But I did get an alarm on a trip a couple years ago and texted a neighbor and she was able to tell me the power went out but it was going to be back soon. Of course, backup generator is an option but it's expensive to do right and unsupervised.
war1025 6y ago
I've had half a mind to start shutting off my water and draining my pipes before leaving on trips in the winter. We've had frozen pipes several times before, but thankfully PEX doesn't seem to burst. Have been working on fixing the insulation issues that lead to the frozen pipes, which I suppose is probably the better solution. But draining the pipes would be a pretty low effort way to get a bit of added insurance.
- ghaff 6y ago
  My dad used to have the operation done in the winter at his house in Maine and it wasn't trivial. Of course, he just turned off the heat entirely as opposed to protecting against temporary heating loss. That said, I never investigated how easily one could just do such protection on one's own. I have improved insulation over the years but you're presumably still in a bad situation if you have a multi-day power outage in freezing temperatures or your furnace quits.
  - war1025 6y ago
    I know to winterize a camper you fill the water lines with antifreeze. I suppose to be really protected you'd need to go that route. We live in a townhouse with a garage on the main level, so the water comes in on the main level, but basically all of our plumbing is on the upper levels. I've had several times when dealing with different plumbing issues where I turn off the main water valve, then open all the faucets and let the water drain out through our water heater. I guess the weakness in that approach would be if there was a bend in the pipe somewhere to not let the water drain fully out, it would still freeze. I guess that's probably why people do the antifreeze method when actually winterizing water lines.
- stjohnswarts 6y ago
  You don't have to drain your pipes, turning off the water and opening up some faucets will prevent 99% of burst pipes.
- EricE 6y ago
  Don't drain your p-traps - your house will fill with methane/sewer gas. Don't ignore your sewer pipes either; they can burst too. Instead if you really want to winterize, pour RV antifreeze down all your sinks, toilets, tubs, showers, etc. RV Antifreeze is also great to pour down all your drains if you aren't going to be in your house for an extended period of time even when it's not freezing cold outside - it evaporates a LOT more slowly than water and thus your home will be far less likely to smell like a sewer when you return.
EricE 6y ago
Yup - even if I still only had a simple mechanical thermostat I'd still have a second as a backup. The backup thermostat was easy to add - just wired it in parallel directly next to my furnace in the basement; all I had to do was run the second cable from the second thermostat into the furnace control board and double up the connections on the terminals that call for heat. Cheap insurance that took all of 10 minutes to install.

ghaff 6y ago

I have a couple different temperature monitors. Of course, doesn't necessarily do a lot of good unless I can get someone to do something. And that may not be possible if they're not around or if there's not anything they reasonably can do. As in your example. But I did get an alarm on a trip a couple years ago and texted a neighbor and she was able to tell me the power went out but it was going to be back soon. Of course, backup generator is an option but it's expensive to do right and unsupervised.

war1025 6y ago

I've had half a mind to start shutting off my water and draining my pipes before leaving on trips in the winter. We've had frozen pipes several times before, but thankfully PEX doesn't seem to burst. Have been working on fixing the insulation issues that lead to the frozen pipes, which I suppose is probably the better solution. But draining the pipes would be a pretty low effort way to get a bit of added insurance.

ghaff 6y ago
My dad used to have the operation done in the winter at his house in Maine and it wasn't trivial. Of course, he just turned off the heat entirely as opposed to protecting against temporary heating loss. That said, I never investigated how easily one could just do such protection on one's own. I have improved insulation over the years but you're presumably still in a bad situation if you have a multi-day power outage in freezing temperatures or your furnace quits.
- war1025 6y ago
  I know to winterize a camper you fill the water lines with antifreeze. I suppose to be really protected you'd need to go that route. We live in a townhouse with a garage on the main level, so the water comes in on the main level, but basically all of our plumbing is on the upper levels. I've had several times when dealing with different plumbing issues where I turn off the main water valve, then open all the faucets and let the water drain out through our water heater. I guess the weakness in that approach would be if there was a bend in the pipe somewhere to not let the water drain fully out, it would still freeze. I guess that's probably why people do the antifreeze method when actually winterizing water lines.
stjohnswarts 6y ago
You don't have to drain your pipes, turning off the water and opening up some faucets will prevent 99% of burst pipes.
EricE 6y ago
Don't drain your p-traps - your house will fill with methane/sewer gas. Don't ignore your sewer pipes either; they can burst too. Instead if you really want to winterize, pour RV antifreeze down all your sinks, toilets, tubs, showers, etc. RV Antifreeze is also great to pour down all your drains if you aren't going to be in your house for an extended period of time even when it's not freezing cold outside - it evaporates a LOT more slowly than water and thus your home will be far less likely to smell like a sewer when you return.

EricE 6y ago

Yup - even if I still only had a simple mechanical thermostat I'd still have a second as a backup. The backup thermostat was easy to add - just wired it in parallel directly next to my furnace in the basement; all I had to do was run the second cable from the second thermostat into the furnace control board and double up the connections on the terminals that call for heat. Cheap insurance that took all of 10 minutes to install.