KaiserJeep wrote:I am loathe to leave the heat on all Winter in an empty house, but the caretaker insists upon it. He will make weekly visits to check on the home and also to look for signs of intruders. We will make energy efficiency improvements beginning next year. Anybody have any experience to share about vacant homes in cold climates?
My mother died in the fall of 2010, and I was the executor, and dealt with the vacant old house over the first winter, so I have some experience with this. Not as brutal as Nantucket, but enough snow, freezing cold, etc. to need to deal with the winter issues.
First, if you keep the house at something like 50 degrees (I used 55 to help ensure against any freezing pipes), it helps a LOT on the heating bill. Since the heat is leaking out roughly proportionally to the delta between inside and outside temp (at least according to the book I just looked at online to check), that 20 degree plus delta reduction saves a lot. My mom was keeping the house near 80 F with my blessing to help prevent chills/illness, since she was so thin, so I'd estimate the NG heating bills dropped by 65% during the coldest two months. The house was poorly insulated -- so the heating bills were significant.
In case you haven't checked -- check on the house insurance. For a vacant house, they may recommend or demand extra insurance for a vacant house, or they might not cover vandalism. (I think I paid roughly $50 for a year of window breakage insurance -- it was worth the peace of mind to know the insurance company was on board with me if there were problems). They might only want to insure it for one year while vacant. This was the case for me, even though I was checking on the house at least weekly, and sometimes working on estate paperwork at the house for hours at a time. The insurance company didn't care -- State Farm's criteria was whether someone is living there full time -- period. YMMV with other companies.
I don't know about odors, but as far as structure, I'd agree with going with what the caretaker says, to reduce the risk of significant unpleasant maintenance surprises. All kinds of things like plumbing don't like being unused over time. You might have your maint. guy run the water in each sink for a couple/few minutes when he does the visit. That could save later plumber bills, for example. (I ended up living in the house, so I'm aware of various consequences based on what I did and didn't do, in hindsight).
I hope this helps. I can only relay info. from my experience.
Given the track record of the perma-doomer blogs, I wouldn't bet a fast crash doomer's money on their predictions.