Empty (?) House for Winter. (to rent, houses, refrigerator)

[AADAD]

I am going to be in Arizona and California Mid December to June. I may be renting my house but it may also be empty.

Rather than shutting everything off my plan is

1) set the water heater to very low
2) set the heat to 45
3) turn off gas to the oven and gas fireplace


Never done this before so tips appreciated and valued.

[NomadicBear]

I would think you would want to shut the water off and bleed the plumbing, too. A burst pipe could ruin the entire house.

[blueflames50]

I tried to find you our old check off list but the main thing is to drain all water including holding tank....even drain out toilet(s) and fill with anti freeze so it doesn't break...heat does go out when power is lost.
Best suggestion is to find someone who knows how to shut up and winterize a motor home as it is the same steps for a house.

[AADAD]

I found this link. Appears you two are correcto-mundo.

How to Winterize a Home - wikiHow

[blueflames50]

Originally Posted by AADAD

I found this link. Appears you two are correcto-mundo.

How to Winterize a Home - wikiHow

that's pretty accurate...one thing I will add that I've never seen on a list: if you have a well for water...throw the breaker (shut off the main power) open the relay switch box (usually located between the tank and safety check valve) place a piece of chalk or moisture absorbing packet in there so the contacts don't corrode .

[Moose Whisperer]

Yes, shut off your water and drain the heater tank and pipes. No reason to pay to keep the water hot, and if the power goes out your heater may not restart.

[gobrien]

Might be easier to rent it out for the winter...except for what to do with your stuff. I would think one way to avoid putting it on the open market would be to see if any of the corporations had new relocated professional employees that needed a place before they buy.

[AADAD]

Originally Posted by gobrien

Might be easier to rent it out for the winter...except for what to do with your stuff. I would think one way to avoid putting it on the open market would be to see if any of the corporations had new relocated professional employees that needed a place before they buy.

Working on that angle as well...

[lyoness]

Lyoness would house sit for free

[AK-Cathy]

Last year we were gone from October to March. We had a house watcher that came by 2-3 times a week to sort mail (she shipped us important stuff once a month in pre-paid priority mail envelopes addressed to the few known places that we would be) to water plants, to check to make sure everything was functioning. You don't want your house to get too cold. We set the heat at 50-55 (most thermostats don't go lower) and we didn't bother with the toilets as one of her tasks was to flush them once or twice a month to keep the traps full (you don't want to come home to the smell of sewer in your house. We had her run sinks and the tub as well but we had drain stops in our stand alone shower. We turned off water to the washer and left the door open to stay dry.

We ate everything in the freezer and refrigerator before we left, making for some odd meals at the end. A few condiments were left that last a long time so we left the refrigerator running for those. We ran the dishwasher for the last time and dried out the bottom. We left the door cracked enough that the light did not come on but enough to keep it from getting moldy. We cracked open closet doors. We unplugged computers, TV, VCR, pretty much everything that wasn't going to be needed.

We suspended trash removal, cable TV and internet service. We had GCI put our phone into voicemail mode and our email was available online. This is very cheap to do. Almost all of our bills are auto-pay. Those that aren't we either suspended service or went in and pre-paid a bunch of money so that bills weren't needing to be paid while we were gone. Bills are much easier to deal with if you will be in one or two places, simply have your mail forwarded.

We took the battery out of the car that was remaining (or you can just pull off the terminals), turned the garage opener off, got a snow removal service and pretty much set everything up to not need attention while we were gone.

We got back to a laundry basket full of junk mail and a few dead leaves off of my ficus (who is never happy about winter) but in general the house rode out the winter beautifully and surprisingly, there was very little dust on anything. That seems like everything, but I'm sure I've forgotten something.

Regarding turning off water at the main: We did this at one of our houses but our boiler system occasionally requires water to keep up to pressure and it's a inherent safety feature to shut down if it detects inadequate internal pressure. Our house watch came by to find the house much colder than normal and fortunately we were able to trouble shoot the problem on the phone. Problem solved when she turned on the house water valve.

We left our house watcher $150 in cash in an envelope to deal with emergencies but it wasn't needed thankfully.

Good luck with your trip.