Going away in winter - what to do with heating and water

[Ray B]

Gill, Lots of good advice posted and as it looks like you have an open vented system, there is no easy answer to your post, If you have a friendly installer a word with him may be of comfort but what ever you decide have a good cruise.

[Gill W]

Thanks for all the suggestions and thoughts - we are going to go with heating on low all the time and water off at the mains

Now we've just got to resolve our other problem - we've got mice in the loft! We had the 'man' round this morning. He couldn't find any obvious way they were getting in, so he's put down poison, and surrounded the trays with tracking dust, in an effort to see where they move around.

[Manoverboard]

Living in the Country we have lots of friendly mice .....

A cheapo ' black n yellow ' trap from a local hardware store and a small dollop of Marathon Bar on the spike will deffo ' locate ' them.

Do you have a downspout that exits from the wall approx one foot off the ground ... that's their favourite point of entry.

Failing that borrow a cat and see if it runs round the walls, if so yon mousey and his girly mates are getting in via the cavity wall.

Squeak, squeak

[Mervyn and Trish]

Or just turn the heating off when you go away and freeze or flood them out!

[ItsmeAnnC]

Hmm....my husband, who is a Gas Safe registered heating engineer, says that you should never leave a conventional boiler (such as a Worcester Greenstar 18ri) with the mains water turned off. If there is a leak in the central heating pipework the header tank will drain down but the boiler will continue to fire and if the boiler runs dry there would be damage to the heat exchanger. We have the same boiler and are going away soon and will be leaving the mains water on.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Hmm....my husband, who is a Gas Safe registered heating engineer, says that you should never leave a conventional boiler (such as a Worcester Greenstar 18ri) with the mains water turned off. If there is a leak in the central heating pipework the header tank will drain down but the boiler will continue to fire and if the boiler runs dry there would be damage to the heat exchanger. We have the same boiler and are going away soon and will be leaving the mains water on.

I'd rather my £500 boiler was wrecked than my £200,000 house. I actually know someone who went away for two weeks and there was a water leak. He came home to find all his ceilings down and all his furniture and belongings saturated. He lived in a hotel for 6 months while it was sorted.

[Raybosailor]

If the boilers safety cut off stat doesn't switch the boiler off before damage is done it shows signs that the boiler is on its way out anyway.

You don't have to be away for months for water damage to ruin your house and contents, with a burst pipe on the first floor the bulk of the damage is done in the first 24 hours and how many of us have been away overnight without turning the water off.

What amazes me is that we don't get the harsh winters like we used to get and most houses these days are insulated up to the gunwales but you are always hearing of burst pipes.
I grew up in a house with no central heating and the only source of heat was a fireplace in the lounge, we would wake up in the morning with thick ice on the inside of the bedroom windows but we never had burst pipes. Having said that the only pipes in the house were the ones to the kitchen and bathroom taps but they weren't lagged.

Kids used to play out all day in snow and ice and we weren't cocooned in thinsulate like the kids today but we hardly ever caught a cold never mind the dreaded flu that we all fear now.

[qbman1]

Hmm....my husband, who is a Gas Safe registered heating engineer, says that you should never leave a conventional boiler (such as a Worcester Greenstar 18ri) with the mains water turned off. If there is a leak in the central heating pipework the header tank will drain down but the boiler will continue to fire and if the boiler runs dry there would be damage to the heat exchanger. We have the same boiler and are going away soon and will be leaving the mains water on.

I'd rather my £500 boiler was wrecked than my £200,000 house. I actually know someone who went away for two weeks and there was a water leak. He came home to find all his ceilings down and all his furniture and belongings saturated. He lived in a hotel for 6 months while it was sorted.

You'll do well to get your boiler replaced for £500 Merv. You must give me the name of your heating engineer.....

[Mervyn and Trish]

I'm talking cost of the boiler Cubie. Even with labour it'll be a lot less than £200,000, unless you have a real cowboy plumber!

[Gill W]

Hmm....my husband, who is a Gas Safe registered heating engineer, says that you should never leave a conventional boiler (such as a Worcester Greenstar 18ri) with the mains water turned off. If there is a leak in the central heating pipework the header tank will drain down but the boiler will continue to fire and if the boiler runs dry there would be damage to the heat exchanger. We have the same boiler and are going away soon and will be leaving the mains water on.

I'd rather my £500 boiler was wrecked than my £200,000 house. I actually know someone who went away for two weeks and there was a water leak. He came home to find all his ceilings down and all his furniture and belongings saturated. He lived in a hotel for 6 months while it was sorted.

On balance, this is what we've decided - a major water leak is worse than the boiler going wrong.

I must admit, I have a lifelong fear of burst pipes, for literally as long as I can remember. It must have been the winter of 1963, when the thaw came in March, I assume there must have been lots of things on TV about burst pipes. I was three at the time, but it must have made an impression, because the thought of a bust pipe has always scared me

Mouse update - the 'man' couldn't find anywhere obvious where they are coming in, so we now have poison in the loft, and tracking dust around it. When he comes back on Sunday he'll be able to see their movements, and see where they are coming in

[qbman1]

Mouse update - the 'man' couldn't find anywhere obvious where they are coming in, so we now have poison in the loft, and tracking dust around it. When he comes back on Sunday he'll be able to see their movements, and see where they are coming in

You need a cat - I have one for hire....!

[anniec]

He (she?) is lovely.

[qbman1]

It's a "he" - Minstrel. He turned up as a stray last summer. We tried to re-home him with a friend of a friend who lives a couple of miles away but he escaped within a couple of hours and took a week to make his way back to us. He's moved in now and decided this is where he wants to live!

[Kenmo1]

Hi GillW

Just wanted to wish you a super holiday on the Oceana for 35 nights from 8th Feb. It is a super itinerary which we would love to have done but the insurance companies wanted silly money because of OH's pre existing medical conditions e.g. Saga £1456 for 35 nights and All Clear Travel £1490 for 35 nights as it involves America. If we hadn't committed ourselves to 2 other cruises this year then we would have paid the extortionate amount and done this fabulous cruise, so I am hoping you will do a cruise report when you get back and I will look forward to reading that.

Have a lovely time - I am sooooooooo jealous.

Maureen.

[Quizzical Bob]

Hi GillW

Just wanted to wish you a super holiday on the Oceana for 35 nights from 8th Feb. It is a super itinerary which we would love to have done but the insurance companies wanted silly money because of OH's pre existing medical conditions e.g. Saga £1456 for 35 nights and All Clear Travel £1490 for 35 nights as it involves America. If we hadn't committed ourselves to 2 other cruises this year then we would have paid the extortionate amount and done this fabulous cruise, so I am hoping you will do a cruise report when you get back and I will look forward to reading that.

Have a lovely time - I am sooooooooo jealous.

Maureen.

Yes, have a great cruise Gill.

The increasing cost of travel insurance is one of our big concerns so we are madly visiting all the places we can whilst it is still affordable.

[GillD46]

Have fun Gill. I look forward to reading all about it.

[Manoverboard]

... The increasing cost of travel insurance is one of our big concerns so we are madly visiting all the places we can whilst it is still affordable.

... and every year that passes by the costs will increase, not a happy prospect is it ?

[Onelife]

The only failsafe way l have found to not coming back to burst pipes is to leave my wife at home

Have a lovely Cruise Gill.

[Gill W]

Mouse update - the 'man' couldn't find anywhere obvious where they are coming in, so we now have poison in the loft, and tracking dust around it. When he comes back on Sunday he'll be able to see their movements, and see where they are coming in

You need a cat - I have one for hire....!

Minstral is very cute - I might have to hire him after all.

After about 10 days of no mouse activity at all, we had a mouse in a trap this morning in the loft

The mouse man was due this morning anyway, and he looked disappointed too. We've now got more poison and extra traps in place. Next doors shrubs are quite near our house where we have a dormer window. He can only think they are climbing the shrubs, and jumping on to the lower part of the roof, and getting into the attic that way. We've been out there cutting back these shrubs this morning so they are at least three feet from the house.

He's said he can come in while we are on holiday to monitor the traps, so I'm going to give his phone number to my friend who'll be coming in to watch the house. It's a shame this has cropped up, but all we can do is our best to protect against this

[Gill W]

Hi GillW

Just wanted to wish you a super holiday on the Oceana for 35 nights from 8th Feb. It is a super itinerary which we would love to have done but the insurance companies wanted silly money because of OH's pre existing medical conditions e.g. Saga £1456 for 35 nights and All Clear Travel £1490 for 35 nights as it involves America. If we hadn't committed ourselves to 2 other cruises this year then we would have paid the extortionate amount and done this fabulous cruise, so I am hoping you will do a cruise report when you get back and I will look forward to reading that.

Have a lovely time - I am sooooooooo jealous.

Maureen.

£1456 is a crazy amount - you could get a cruise to the med for that.

We used to have our travel insurance with the M&S Premium Club, which covered up to age 80. But now that I have Menieres Disease, that was one of the conditions that they won't cover. So we went with Staysure. OH is 64, with no pre-existing conditions, and the annual premium was about £180, nothing extra for my Meneries.

But, due to his age, premiums will start to creep upwards each year, so we are getting these longer cruises done now, while insurance is still relatively cheap.

We are really looking forward to this cruise - we always said we'd do a long cruise when we had finished work, so we are going for it.

The weather over the weekend and for Monday for Southhampton is not promising, with high winds forecast. So there is plenty of chance for Oceana to be late in, or not being able to dock, or not sailing on time. But we'll just go with the flow - as long as the 2 day stop in New Orleans isn't affected, I'll cope!

I'll be taking my iPad, and will be typing my reports as I go. I'll post them when I get back - in 35 nights, no doubt I'll have lots to say!

[Gill W]

The only failsafe way l have found to not coming back to burst pipes is to leave my wife at home

Have a lovely Cruise Gill.

Trust me, that's not an option in this case!

[qbman1]

[He can only think they are climbing the shrubs, and jumping on to the lower part of the roof, and getting into the attic that way. We've been out there cutting back these shrubs this morning so they are at least three feet from the house.

You think that will stop them ?!

Mouse_Jump_005.jpg

[Gill W]

As a co-incidence, just as I've been posting about the cruise, I've had a text from P&O

Our original etickets said we were leaving from the Mayflower, but they had got it wrong, it was really the Ocean, and we got amended etickets

The text I've just had says its now been changed to the Mayflower after all!

I think this may be due to the predicted weather conditions, as, I understand the Ocean can be awkward in windy conditions.

What with Charleston being limited to one day instead of two, and the changes in the embarkation terminal, I'm convinced this is going to be one of 'those' cruises, where things keep happening!

[Gill W]

[He can only think they are climbing the shrubs, and jumping on to the lower part of the roof, and getting into the attic that way. We've been out there cutting back these shrubs this morning so they are at least three feet from the house.

You think that will stop them ?!

Mouse_Jump_005.jpg

Don't!!! I don't want to know!!!

[qbman1]

As a co-incidence, just as I've been posting about the cruise, I've had a text from P&O

Our original etickets said we were leaving from the Mayflower, but they had got it wrong, it was really the Ocean, and we got amended etickets

The text I've just had says its now been changed to the Mayflower after all!

I think this may be due to the predicted weather conditions, as, I understand the Ocean can be awkward in windy conditions.

What with Charleston being limited to one day instead of two, and the changes in the embarkation terminal, I'm convinced this is going to be one of 'those' cruises, where things keep happening!

It could be worse - they could have booked Martin Daniels as the "star turn" !!