Use the setback temperature on your programmable thermostat instead of turning the heating completely off.
A lot of people turn off the heating completely when they leave the house. However, this can put your home at risk of dampness, mold growth, and burst pipes especially when temperatures drop below 30 degrees. Even if you think your home is well insulated, dropping temperatures can pose an issue for standing water in pipes. By this we mean when you’re not home your domestic water is not moving through pipes because you’re not using it, and if you turn your heat off water is not moving through your heating pipes, and we all know that hot water freezes faster than cold water due to accelerated cooling process. Now you think that the interior of the home will never get to freezing by the time I get home, but it’s not the interior of the home to be worried about. It’s those north walls of the house, crawl spaces, attic spaces, basements where your pipes hang out. Now your home may not be freezing inside but when the single digits come with a wind chill, the areas we just mentioned are your homes weak area especially when you turn your heat off.
So, your best bet is to leave your thermostat on and take it off the auto setting. Leaving your home at a locked 68 degrees only for those under 40-degree days. So now if you’re out for longer than expected you won’t be coming home to frozen pipes. (You don’t always know you have frozen pipes until temperatures outside warm up, and then that’s when disaster strikes as pipes defrost and you’re not home.
IMPORTANT INFO TO KNOW:
The average home needs approximately 1 hour to warm up 5 degrees. So let’s say when you get home from work your home is at 58 degrees it will take approximately 2 hours to get your home up to a preferred 68 degrees.