Charlie:
John from Atascocita has written to us, Tom. He says, “When going on vacation, I want to shut off the water to my house, but I’m concerned about leaving the house closed in and with the water heaters up in the attic.” Should he have any concerns?
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Tom:
No, I think he needs to turn the water off to the house. He doesn’t even have to drain the pipes. We’re not looking for freezes, but that’s not a bad idea time of year, you could do that. As far as just releasing the pressure because if something breaks in your home, it’s just gonna keep pumping water. The water heater’s fine.
Charlie:
That’s it?
Tom:
That’s it. Turn it off.
Charlie:
What about other stuff? Should he leave on, turn off anything else you should do when you prep a house to [leave 00:00:34]?
Tom:
When I used to have a weekend home in the summer, we would leave the thermostat at 82 for cooling. In the winter-
Charlie:
Which you probably have to do at Christmas vacation.
Tom:
You might have to, actually. At 65 in the winter time so it doesn’t get frozen in your home, which doesn’t happen often, and turn the water off to the house. Then your normal things like maybe leave lights on and have your mail picked up, and have your dog fed. Something like that.
Charlie:
Well, there’s that. I read a story about things that frighten off burglars, or make them not want to go in a house. One of the things they said was a television that’s on.
Tom:
Oh, yeah, they hear noise.
Charlie:
They assume are you in the shower maybe, in the bath. They’re not gonna go in. If you don’t mind running your flat screen, leave it on.
Tom:
You could.
Charlie:
They’ll think you’re nocturnal at night, watching the movies.
Tom:
Or even leave a stereo running, a radio, just so they hear the noise.
Charlie:
That’s true, and maybe put it on a station your neighbor hates, and turn it up and head out of town.
Tom:
Don’t they have some kinda growling heavy rock now, or something? Some really angry music.
Charlie:
Growling, angry music? It’s weird. We like happy music.