Is It Okay To Leave My Heater On When I Am Not Home?

The holiday season is here and with it, a lot of us will not be at home. From traveling to see family to taking time to have that perfect winter getaway, many of us will be unplugging our appliances and hitting the road for some much needed time off. However, while turning off lights and unplugging electronics is easy, many people wonder if they should leave their heater running?

Keeping Your Home Warm

Unlike the lights in your home, your heater isn’t running nonstop when it is turned on. Instead, you have programmed your thermostat to keep your home at a certain temperature. When the thermostat senses that the temperature in your home is falling below what you want it to be, then the heater automatically turns on to correct the problem. Once the correct temperature has been reached, the heater turns off again, waiting for the thermostat to tell it when to come back on.

Because heat is constantly escaping your home when the temperatures are cold outside, it makes sense for homeowners to be looking for ways to save money when they are not there. However, turning off your heater can lead to some negative consequences;

Potential Problems Faced By Your Heater When Left Off

If you were to leave for the holidays and decided to turn your heater off, a few things could happen. The most concerning is that the piping for your plumbing could freeze. This is because both the temperatures inside of the home and the temperatures outside of your home are extremely cold. When this happens, your pipes could easily burst, leaving you with a wet mess and no water when you get home.

Another potential problem is, that like your car, your HVAC system needs to be run every so often to ensure that your system is running smoothly. When left off for a while, the different parts could begin to rust or break down, causing major issues when it is turned on again. Not only does this lead to having no heat in your home when you return but it also leads to expensive repairs.

How Do I Save Money and Protect My Heater?

When your home starts to get cold, your heater automatically kicks on to make it back to a comfortable temperature. To save your furnace some trouble, protect your pipes, and save some energy, you can simply set your thermostat to a lower temperature.

At Comfort Masters Heating & Air Conditioning, our perfect temperature for the not-at-home-holidays is 63. It is too high to lead to freezing pipes but just low enough that your furnace has to do very little work. This will help you save as much as 10 percent on your energy bill while you are away. Also, this temperature will help keep your pets warm.

Make Sure You Get Your Heater Serviced Annually

One of the biggest ways to ensure that your heater doesn’t give up on you this holiday season is to invest in a yearly maintenance check. This check will ensure that all of the heater’s parts are working properly. The dedicated team at Comfort Masters Heating & Air Conditioning can quickly spot the sign of a potential problem and solve it so that your heater can last you all winter long. Contact our team for more information on our services or to schedule your heater maintenance service today!