We have some weather coming Thu PM > Fri: snow and high winds. Suggestion: bump your thermostats up to a higher temp. Get house nice n’ toasy; that way if you experience a power outage, you have a buffer zone before the house gets cold.

Same for those with wifi accessible thermostats / gone for the season. And recommend having someone local check your empty Cape house after the storm passes, any time we have that kind of weather. Never know what can happen with high winds (predicting 70 mph).

ALSO: We don’t recommend turning thermostats down at night. Modern equipment works more efficiently if you maintain a steady temperature (set it and forget it), AND with the cold temps we’ve been having, it will take the house a long time to heat back up.  -deb

Based on what we saw yesterday, we want to make a recommendation – especially to people with wifi thermostats in seasonal homes:

If we have severe weather coming, we strongly recommend putting the temp up to 75 until the weather front has passed. This is to keep outside-wall pipes from freezing (if the house is not drained for the winter), and to give your house a temp boost in case you lost power there – and many people did end up losing power on the Cape last evening.

We got about a foot of snow here. Hard, driving winds during the storm.

During this very cold weather, you need to be especially mindful of a few things – otherwise your heater will have trouble keeping up:

1) Set your thermostats to a comfortable level, and do not turn them down at night. As a general rule, turning up/down is actually less efficient, as the system has to work hard again to reheat the home after you turn the thermostat back up.
(Applies to AC, too – set it and forget it is best.)

2) Homes with multiple thermostats: they all need to be set at the same temperature – otherwise the higher-setting zone will keep running to heat the lower-setting zone, and not be able to keep up with the demand.
= = = = =
Seasonal/second Cape homes:

1) If you leave the heat and water on: Have someone check your home often, to make sure the heat is operating.

2) Consider having us install wifi thermostats, so that you can monitor/adjust your systems remotely (requires year round wifi at the home). It can also be set up so that Seaside gets your heat-issue alerts.

3) If you have a hot-water system (boiler) and leave the heat on / turn the water main off: You can shut off the water for a matter of weeks, *not* months. The boiler will attempt to draw water and have issues if the water is left off for extended periods.
Consider having us install a dedicated water line from the water meter to the boiler, so that you can shut off the water main to the rest of the home, while keeping the water supply on to the boiler.

4) If you arrive and find your heat off / things frozen: The system should be checked. Leaks appear when the heat is turned back on and the frozen piping thaws.