Winter frost protection - unsophisticated heating - recommendations

I'd be a little concerned about keeping the gas heating on as the old boiler presumably with a pilot could blow out and leave you unprotected.

Try a radical thought of a frost stat operating the immersion heater and pump to leak a little warmth through all the radiators and up to the underside of the header tank.

idea 2 Connect the system to the interweb so you can remotely check the temperature and the pilot status and put the heating on low if needed. If then the pilot is out, a visit (or help from a neighbour) might be needed.

Bob

Depends how easy it is to get at the stopcock. You might want to look at

You could also put a Surestop on the outlet from the loft tank

It is far better to know the stopcock is stuck or faulty before you have to do the job in cold floodwater.

Thanks - however the solutions suggested by both Peter and Bob require time, money and tools.

For context, I intend to leave the house on Sunday and have lots of other things to do as well.

So any new wiring and plumbing is out.

There is a friendly neighbour who can pop in to check all is well from time to time, which should solve the pilot light issue.

Cheers

Dave R

Check your insurance - mine says to leave it on 15C min if away over winter (defined dates).

Mine used to require 15C, but this year's policy says 13C.

David submitted this idea :

I would suggest...

1. Stop tap turned off, but if there is a leak or some evaporation, the header tank will need occasional topping up. Have your neighbour turn it on occasionally. He/she should be able to tell by the noise of water flowing, how often it might need to be turned on to top things up. Additionally, with stop tap off, open all taps, so as to drain pipework down.

1. Set the room stat to 5C (or have a frost stat installed) with heating clock set for always on.

2. Install a second frost stat., wired to a lamp, which would be visible to your neighbour from his/her home to signal a problem. Stat. might need some tweaking so it doesn't false report.

The hot water system could also be drained down, if the supply to its header tank is isolated.

It's daft really - clearly 15C is set with pipes in an uninsulated cold loft in mind.

If your pipes are all inside an insulated envelope, you could manage with 5C give or take.

Problem is, the insurers have you by the nads if you need to make a claim...

OTOH, if you have a gas boiler in an insulated house, leaving the heating on 15C for a couple of weeks holiday is not going to cost much.

If you live in a stone shack in the north of Scotland, you might be better draining down for a non trivial break away.

I've looked through the PDF (using find) but can't find a specific temperature.

I've emailed the broker to check.

Cheers

Dave R

Not all policies have this, but I've seen it in two, so it is worth checking :)

I'd be inclined to add a second thermostat to protect against frost only and hold the interior at a nominal 8C. There is one in my loft which brings the system online when the interior roof space gets below 4C.

Check your insurance to make sure they don't specify a minimum thermostat temperature in winter when away from the premises.

It depends a bit on how much thermal inertia your building has and how many airchanges per hour in a howling gale. That is the worst case scenario for freezing. You should look for any exposed pipes that lack insulation and could be in the path of an outside draft - that is how all the freeze problems I have ever seen arose during a blizzard.

You would have to do some experiments. Does the site have internet? You could leave a wireless temperature monitor so you can keep an eye on what is happening remotely. Old boilers do sometimes play up in winter gales which would leave you unprotected.

The coldest part of the night is typically just before dawn so when the house is empty that is the point where you need some heating on.

Likewise during the day on a fine day you have solar heating.

That is an understatement. I have seen what a flat that flooded until the exterior door could no longer hold the water back and failed catastrophically did to the door at the bottom of the stairwell.

I would be a bit wary of having the heating on and no cold mains feed.

It might be as well to establish that you can turn the water off.

Remember the cold winter 9 years ago?

A couple with a solid fuel boiler went abroad for Christmas. A kind neighbour let himself in 3 hours before they were due back home and lit the boiler so that they would be warm when they got in. The resulting explosion due to the frozen pipes caused about £10K of damage.

There is some tendency with boilers from that era for the pilot flame gas valve to stick open. Then if the flame blows out, gas keeps being emitted. Not a significant hazard if it's room sealed, but many weren't.

NT

I have a small, cheap wireless "weather station" that listens to a temperature sender in the garden.

Provided your neighbour is close enough, there's no reason such a sender should not go in your house, with the receiver somewhere convenient for your neighbour. That being the case, they could easily do a daily check that your CH is still running just by looking at the display.

I *think* I have seen ones with temperature alarms (but careful, some only alarm on humidity and many have alarm *clocks*).

Failing that, I'd consider implementing a "light in the window" connected to a thermostat.

Leave central heating on It's possible to buy a thermostat with a "frost" setting. Make sure all radiators are on. To stop water pipes freezing leave taps dripping (assuming no water meter) This brings sufficient water through the pipe to stop freezing.

When my father died in 1995, I rigged up a frost stat to his heating system. What I didn't know was that Edinburgh had one of the coldest winters (-20°F_ and the bo°iler ourput was nowhere near enough to keep the house warm. The watertank froze solid!

If there is a back-up heater make sure it is on a different circuit to the main heating so that if a circuit breaker trips you don't lose both heating systems at the same time. If you have RCDs then have primary and secondary heating on separate RCDs.

John

(snip)

It happens that Jeff Layman formulated :

Then you make a point of installing the 5C stat at the coldest likely location.

And how do you do that? It will depend on which way the wind is blowing, which windows/doors have draughts coming through, where any insulation is good or bad, etc. And it's an old house with the thermostat in the hall. If the sun comes though on a clear day when its -5C outside and warms the thermostat, the heating won't come on while the rest of the house freezes.

If the OP wants to fit a wireless stat, fine. But it will cost money, and won't be of use until you find the coldest place in the house in which to place it, and keep it out of the sun.

As a further point, I would check the loft insulation (which the OP said looked adequate) and ensure it covers any water pipes. It would also be worth covering the tops and sides of the tanks with insulation or old blankets if they haven't been covered.