3 ms·

Why would you heat your home at all if you're not going to be home for over two days?

basisword 4y ago
If you don't heat your home for a while, and it's cold enough, the pipes can freeze, break, and flood your home. It's happened to more than a couple of people I know and they're in the UK - so it doesn't need to get very cold for it to happen.
- inglor_cz 4y ago
  This, plus I don't want to return to a completely cold house that takes about three days to heat up to 20 degrees Celsius again. The building is built of bricks, it has a certain thermal mass and the floor heating isn't very powerful. Letting the inner temperature to drop close to zero would mean a very uncomfortable period after return. I was never absent for more than 5 days anyway, so...
suresk 4y ago
Letting it get too cold could lead to plumbing damage if you parts of your house get below freezing. 15C is probably higher than I'd leave it if it were vacant, but you do want to leave the heat on and a decent buffer to account for temperature variations in other parts of the house.
- inglor_cz 4y ago
  I discussed the temperature with the guy who oversaw the construction and he told me that, given that the house is still pretty fresh and moist (it was finished in November '22), lower temperatures would mean a risk of mould developing. 15-16 is the sweet spot according to him.
  - suresk 4y ago
    That's a good point - where I live it is pretty dry, but in a more humid area you definitely want air moving around more too.
jdmichal 4y ago
In addition to other replies, in hot and humid climates, you still want the A/C running for de-humidification purposes. So you set it high instead of turning it off completely.
yread 4y ago
In addition to other replies you want to keep the relative humidity <60% otherwise you get condensation (your 20C air, 40% relative humidity gets cooled to 15C and that becomes 55% relative humidity, cool it to 10C and it becomes 75%). Condensation can cause mold, short circuits and all kinds of other expensive problems.
- inglor_cz 4y ago
  Getting humidity under 50 per cent in a freshly built house over the winter ... turned out just impossible. We fought hard to keep it at least under 60 per cent, as you say. If it froze outside, windows in the bedroom would be covered with water droplets in the morning. (Actually, it froze last night, quite late in the season, and the windows were wet again.)
  - bornfreddy 4y ago
    Keeping humidity low is all about making sure the air doesn't cool too much, or if it does, replacing it with drier (colder) air from outside. There is a certain amount of water in air and when it cools this water will condense. Good insulation (keeping inner temp constant) is key.
  - adrianN 4y ago
    You might want to look into installing heat-exchanging ventilation.
    - inglor_cz 4y ago
      In the future, possibly. As of now, my finances are rather tight, furnishing a new house from scratch is expensive.
      - adrianN 4y ago
        There are inexpensive units that require little more than a hole in the wall.
  - 4y ago

If you don't heat your home for a while, and it's cold enough, the pipes can freeze, break, and flood your home. It's happened to more than a couple of people I know and they're in the UK - so it doesn't need to get very cold for it to happen.

inglor_cz 4y ago
This, plus I don't want to return to a completely cold house that takes about three days to heat up to 20 degrees Celsius again. The building is built of bricks, it has a certain thermal mass and the floor heating isn't very powerful. Letting the inner temperature to drop close to zero would mean a very uncomfortable period after return. I was never absent for more than 5 days anyway, so...

suresk 4y ago

Letting it get too cold could lead to plumbing damage if you parts of your house get below freezing. 15C is probably higher than I'd leave it if it were vacant, but you do want to leave the heat on and a decent buffer to account for temperature variations in other parts of the house.

inglor_cz 4y ago
I discussed the temperature with the guy who oversaw the construction and he told me that, given that the house is still pretty fresh and moist (it was finished in November '22), lower temperatures would mean a risk of mould developing. 15-16 is the sweet spot according to him.
- suresk 4y ago
  That's a good point - where I live it is pretty dry, but in a more humid area you definitely want air moving around more too.

jdmichal 4y ago

In addition to other replies, in hot and humid climates, you still want the A/C running for de-humidification purposes. So you set it high instead of turning it off completely.

yread 4y ago

In addition to other replies you want to keep the relative humidity <60% otherwise you get condensation (your 20C air, 40% relative humidity gets cooled to 15C and that becomes 55% relative humidity, cool it to 10C and it becomes 75%). Condensation can cause mold, short circuits and all kinds of other expensive problems.

inglor_cz 4y ago
Getting humidity under 50 per cent in a freshly built house over the winter ... turned out just impossible. We fought hard to keep it at least under 60 per cent, as you say. If it froze outside, windows in the bedroom would be covered with water droplets in the morning. (Actually, it froze last night, quite late in the season, and the windows were wet again.)
- bornfreddy 4y ago
  Keeping humidity low is all about making sure the air doesn't cool too much, or if it does, replacing it with drier (colder) air from outside. There is a certain amount of water in air and when it cools this water will condense. Good insulation (keeping inner temp constant) is key.
- adrianN 4y ago
  You might want to look into installing heat-exchanging ventilation.
  - inglor_cz 4y ago
    In the future, possibly. As of now, my finances are rather tight, furnishing a new house from scratch is expensive.
    - adrianN 4y ago
      There are inexpensive units that require little more than a hole in the wall.
- 4y ago