-
Partial winterizing: can I leave boiler/heat on but turn off water supply at street?
Hi, all — I have a house in a village in upstate NY. For the last several years I have been unable to be there during the winter. Good neighbors keep an eye on it, but I can’t fully rely on them so would appreciate advice on the following:
There is an oil-fueled boiler in the basement and a base-board hot water heating system throughout the two-story house. The baseboard heating system has antifreeze in it. For the last couple of winters, I have left the thermostat at 45 or 50 to keep the house slightly warm. I have also turned off the water where the supply enters from the street, and left the sink valves open. My purpose is to reduce catastrophic damage from burst pipes if the heat fails because of power outage, boiler malfunction or whatever. It’s obviously not as complete a solution as pumping out all water with a compressor and putting antifreeze in the P traps and so forth, but it’s easy to do and at least I would be there to detect leaks or damage to the hot water heater when I turn the water back on in the springtime.
HOWEVER, a neighbor told me that I cannot turn off the water supply because the baseboard hot water heating system needs water pressure to function properly. Could this be true? Or maybe, the boiler needs a water supply in case the water boils off or leaks out?
SO THE QUESTION IS, can I turn off the water supply and leave the boiler/baseboard heaters running, or not?
Thanks for your insights.
RobertonAC
PS sorry I don’t have details on the boiler and components of the baseboard system with me. I have asked a neighbor to send me pics when possible.
-
-
If there is anti-freeze in the heating loop it should not be connected to potable water so turning off the main water should not pose a problem.
-
A low water cut-off would help too if a pipe burst and the boiler drained. The burner wouldn't dry fire and ruin your boiler.
If you have internet access at the place you could put in a wifi thermostat that would alert you if the temperature dropped below a predetermined set point.
Also most modern oil burner controls have alarm contacts that could alert you if your burner locked out.
-
Post Likes - 1 Likes, 0 Dislikes
-
-
Thanks very much. The boiler is going on 20 years old so it will not have modern bells and whistles. I will see if I can get a low water cut-off installed. I don’t have internet there, but in past years I have used a temperature alarm device that, if the temperature inside drops below a set level such as 40 degrees, turns on current for a bright red light in the front window. My neighbors will see the light and let me know something is amiss.