A house left empty in a Columbia summer doesn’t have anyone there to notice when something is amiss. Nobody is there to notice a musty smell, hear the sump pump fail, or see water under the water heater. The humidity that the air conditioner manages every day keeps working on the house whether anyone is home or not. How should you prepare if you’re gone for a week? What about a month? The preparation depends on how long you will be gone, so this post is in two parts to help you cover a range of times.
Before a week away
Set the thermostat higher, never off
The most common mistake in a Midlands summer is turning the air conditioning off to save money while the house is empty. In Columbia’s humidity, a closed house without cooling climbs into the upper 80s and the moisture settles into the floors, furniture, and walls, and a week of that is how a house comes to smell musty and grow mold in the closets. In summer. set the thermostat higher rather than off, somewhere around 80 to 85 degrees, so the system still runs enough to pull moisture from the air. In winter, hold it at 55 or above to protect the pipes. A smart thermostat lets you check the house from the road and lower the setting the day before you return.
Shut down what can flood
A supply line that lets go in an empty house runs until someone finds it. Turn the water heater to its vacation setting (often labelled “VAC”), or lower the temperature, and close the valves to the washing machine, whose hoses are the most common source of a flood in an empty house. If you are comfortable doing so, shut off the water main; if not, confirm it turns before you leave, so whoever checks on the house can close it if needed.
Test the sump pump and run the drains
If the house sits over a crawl space with a sump pump, test the pump before you leave by lifting the float or pouring water into the pit, because a summer thunderstorm can fill the crawl space while you are gone and a pump that is not working is the same as no pump. A battery backup pump, which our sump pump team installs, keeps it running if the storm also takes the power. Run water down every drain before you go, since a dry trap lets sewer gas into the house, and a slow drain is easier to clear before the trip than to come home to.
Small items before you lock the door
- Change the air filter, so the system runs efficiently while it holds the humidity down.
- Test the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, since an alarm a neighbor can hear is the only warning an empty house has.
- Unplug the television, computer, and small appliances, which stops the idle draw and takes them off the grid during a summer storm’s surges.
- Ask a neighbor to walk through once during the week, and tell them where the water main and the breaker panel are.
Before a month or a season away
A longer absence adds a few things, because the odds of a storm, an outage, or a failure rise with every week.
- Shut off the water main rather than leaving it on, and open a faucet afterward to drain the pressure from the lines. Turn the water heater off entirely if it is electric, or to vacation mode if it is gas.
- If the house has a standby generator, confirm it has been running its weekly self-test and that the controller shows green, and consider having its yearly service done before a long trip so it is ready if the power fails. A generator that starts on its own is the difference between coming home to a normal house and coming home to a warm refrigerator and a wet crawl space.
- If the trip falls between June and November, look at the forecast before you leave and arrange for someone to check the house after any tropical system passes the Midlands.
- Consider a smart thermostat if you do not have one, since a month is a long time not to know whether the cooling system is running.
- Schedule the seasonal tune-up before you leave rather than after you return, so the system that will run unattended for a month has been checked.
If a storm comes while you are away
Summer is both vacation season and storm season in Columbia, and a trip planned in March can land in a tropical system’s path in September. If one is in the forecast, ask whoever is checking the house to walk through after it passes, shut off the water main if you have not, and confirm the generator’s status one more time. If you have a portable generator, leave clear instructions about running it only outdoors and never plugging it into a wall outlet, or leave it unused, since a portable generator run by someone unfamiliar with it is a risk of its own.
When you get home
Before you unpack, take a walk through the house. Open the water main if it was closed and run the faucets for a minute, look under the sinks and at the floor around the water heater, glance into the sump pit, and lower the thermostat and listen to the system start. If the power was out while you were gone, look at the panel for tripped breakers and give the cooling system a few minutes before judging it, since a flicker during restoration is hard on capacitors and control boards.
Getting the house ready before a trip
2nd Wind Heating & Air Conditioning has served Columbia since 1985. If you would like the cooling system tuned up, the sump pump tested, or the generator serviced before a long trip, schedule online or through the website chat at any hour. Members of the Cloud 10 Membership receive priority scheduling, which helps when the trip is coming up quickly, and coil cleaning is included in every visit.