You have to drain all of your pipes. Yes, you can leave the heat on, but if it goes off, THOSE pipes will burst (unless you have antifreeze in your system) and THAT will cost you an arm and a leg to repair if you have to start digging into walls and floors to do repairs.
The best thing to do is turn you thermostat down low and have a neighbor check on your house DAILY or you could get a Honeywell Watchman:
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I have a lot of customers with summer homes in the area and they use one of these. They will plug a spotlight (or lamp of some kind) into it and have it shine torwards a neighbor's house. If the temperature of the house goes below the set point, it will bring the light on and the neighbor will see it and call (whoever: you, service company) because they know the heat is off.
It's possible to "freeze proof" a house but to do it right you have to connect air and literally blow the water out of dips and accidental traps.
You also pour anti-freeze into the toilet, sink, and bath traps and the dishwasher and the clothes watcher and the drain for the washer.
IF you have public water you should have the water shut off at the meter and drain the line from the meter to your home.
OR you can just put in a back up heating system comprising a bunch of your basis $20 1kW electric heaters set to someone like 45F. (If you can, get a heater with a "freeze protection" setting.)
You shut off the main water anyway to reduce damage if your backup fails and shut off the water heater.
The electrical heaters should be placed in the bathrooms, the kitchen, laundry, the basement near the water heater and where the water pipe enters the basement.
Open the doors to under-sink cabinets (especially where the sink is on an outside wall.)
If your main heat fails your "backup" should keep most/all of the pipes from freezing or at least reduce the extent of the damage.
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Well, the catalogs that push the home automatic stuff (X-10, etc) have relatively cheap gadgets which will turn one/off at various temperatures (different models for different applications.)
Trouble with relying on a neighbor is that when the weather gets REALLY cold he may be too busy with his own problems to get around to working your problems.
But what if the bulb burns out? What if the electric goes off? What if the H/W malfunctions? What if the service man cant get there? What if there is a nuclear holocaust? Bubba :-)
Better yet, have a light that is on if the temps are ok. If the light is out, something is wrong. It may just be a burned out bulb, but at least you know something is wrong. Greg
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