No doubt you’re ready for some time away. But have you taken the home maintenance steps necessary to leave your house unoccupied? Leaving household functions like HVAC equipment to operate as normal only results in an electric bill that looks like you never went away. The increasing amount of high-tech devices in today’s home warrants some special provisions while no one’s on the premises, too. Security’s a factor, as well: The more your home appears lived-in when no one’s there, the better. Here are seven home maintenance steps to take before you lock the door and hit the road:
- Turn the air conditioner thermostat up to 85 degrees. If you have a programmable thermostat, select the vacation mode and program the temperature for 85 degrees for those days.
- If you’re leaving for more than three days, follow these measures for your water heater: For a gas-fired heater, turn the thermostat down to the “Warm” setting. For an electric heater, turn off the circuit breaker controlling the heater or turn the thermostat down to warm.
- Unplug all major appliances. Also unplug home entertainment equipment. Some large televisions could turn on spontaneously in the event of a power surge or disruption while you’re away.
- Power down then unplug devices that spend most of their time on standby or in sleep mode including computers, printers, scanners, and cable TV and satellite boxes.
- In the days leading up to your vacation, consume perishables in the refrigerator. The day you leave, turn the temperature control knob up a few notches. If you’re going to be gone for a month or more, remove all contents, unplug the refrigerator and prop the door open.
- Designate a few interior lamps as security lights and connect them to a vacation security timer set to random on/off patterns. Turn off all other lights.
- Shut off the house water at the main control valve.
Climate Control Company is comfort driven, Colorado style. Homeowners on the Western Slope have relied on our safe, cost-effective and environmentally sustainable heating and cooling products since 1956. Call us and let us show you how we do it.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Aspen, Vail and the surrounding Western slope communities in Colorado about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about home maintenance tips and other HVAC topics, please visit our website.
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