How to use a thermostat for vacant vacation home?

I have a vacation home in Utah that is vacant %26amp; with no furniture. I know I'm supposed to have the heat on to avoid frozen pipes. I know nothing about programmable thermostats/furnaces. My bill was $160 this month %26amp; need to adjust my settings. What temperature would be appropriate for an empty home to avoid frozen pipes? Also, how do thermostats work? For example, let's say I wanted to keep the house at 55 degrees %26amp; not any hotter to avoid an $$ bill. How do I adjust the setting? Like, if the heat turns on when it reaches 55 F degrees, then for how long does it heat the house before the heat turns off %26amp; at what temperature does it heat it when it turns on when it reaches 55 F degrees?

I read this online but don't know what they mean:

%26quot;The savings depend on the temperature that the unit is set back to %26amp; the length of time for the %26quot;setback%26quot; periods. Obviously, a setback of 10掳 saves more energy than one of 5掳. Similarly, a 10 hr setback period saves more than a 5 hr setback.%26quot;

Thanks!How to use a thermostat for vacant vacation home?If you set a thermostat to 55 it will typically turn the heat on if the temp drops below 54 and it will keep it on until the temp exceeds 56. On many new thermostats you can actually adjust this spread. A wider spread is uncomfortable for people but, depending on the type of heat can be more efficient. In your case I would leave it at the factory setting.



A setback thermostat is for a situation when people are living in the space. You might set the temp to 72 during the day but you would like it to be cooler overnight for both comfort in a warm bed and to save fuel. You could set it up to %26quot;setback%26quot; at 11PM to 65 degrees. Furthermore you could have it set itself up to 72 in the morning before you typically get up to make the place warm. I can't think of any reason to use the setback feature while no one is living there. Hopefully your thermostat lets you defeat this so it can just stay at whatever temp you set.



You might think that setting the temp at 33 would be OK to prevent freezing but you must remember that many times plumbing is in exterior walls and subjected to temps much cooler than the thermostat is controlling to. I'd leave it 50 or so and keep interior doors open to any room that has plumbing and I also keep sink cabinet doors open for plumbing fixtures on outside walls to try to allow all pipes to be at room temp.How to use a thermostat for vacant vacation home?Set the thermostat to just above freezing point ( Celsius 0 ). The heat will only come on when the temperature drops below the setting and will switch of as soon as the set temperature has been reached ( at the thermostat which normally lives some 4 feet above floor level, therefore it should be set above freezing temp.)How to use a thermostat for vacant vacation home?Geez, you're rambling.



Most modern programmable termostats are a lot easier to use than those of yesteryear. Spend $40 for a programmable, READ THE #$%^%26amp;*# MANUAL and set it to the desired temperature. It's that easy.



Most thermostats only allow you to go down to about 50 degrees to avoid having the pipes freeze in the house. That will minimize your heating bill and save your pipes.



Programmable thermostats allow you to set the thermostat at a certain temperature and leave it there until it's changed.



Alternately, you can program the thermostat to be at 50 degrees all day and all night.How to use a thermostat for vacant vacation home?first of all if its a vacation home

drain the domestic water and add anti-freeze to the toilets and sinks.

set the thermostat to no lower than 55.

even though the TT may be reading 55 the pipes in you kitchen wall may be close to freezingHow to use a thermostat for vacant vacation home?i would buy a round Honeywell thermostat this is the most reliable on the market .when u open the thermo u will see a series of numbers like 2.5 3.0. 5.5 etc these are heat anticipate settings .look on the gas valve there is a number that will match the anticipate set it es such .now set the thermo at 50 degrees and open all the doors to the upstairs and basement.the reason u want to set the ant.is because the heat wont over run the setting.saving u money