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James "Cubby" Culbertson wrote:

What type of heater are you thinking of?

Whatever works the best! My girlfriend's father suggested propane, but
I have visions of an unattended propane heater blowing up my cottage.
Is this a realistic concern?

I had a wall hung unit at my cabin that burned propane. Used to leave it
on all the time during the winter and never had any issues. It was one of
those ventless ones though and it stunk like hell. I wouldn't want to run
it under the house. I have since retired the wall hung unit and installed
a forced air furnace under the house which as a bonus, keeps the crawl space
pretty warm.


An electric one faces the same
issues
as using heat tape (ie. lose power, things cool off).

I was thinking of electric, hoping that the larger area wouldn't cool
off fast enough for the pipes to freeze if the power went out for a few
hours. My intitial post was sort of seeking input on whether there is
a heater (preferably with a thermostat) that I could safely leave on
when I'm not there.

At the end of the day, any time you leave something "on" there is a level of
risk, particularly if you're not there to react quickly if need be. I leave
my furnace on up there on the lowest setting and hope I don't get back up
there and find a pile of ashes. One reason I drain my lines is so I don't
get up there and find a swimming pool in the place.


I've done this.
I installed a drain at the lowest point of my system. When I leave, I
turn
off
the main, open the drain, and fill all my sinks/toilet/drains with RV
antifreeze.
I have heat tape/insulation on all the lines under the cabin for when we
are
up there
but I haven't had an issue yet. The added benefit to just shutting the
water off
is you eliminate the potential for a burst line or leak (I've got a
washer/dryer) when I'm not there.

The cottage was built so that the water can be drained, but there is a
hot water heater and (excuse the clueless term) large tank with water
and air that is part of the pumping system. I would hate to have to
drain and refill everything every week or two. OTOH, maybe there's no
realistic alternative.

So you're on a well/pump. The expansion tank is there to buffer the pump
from running all the time. Honestly, that tank, I'm guessing, doesn't hold
all that much water. On my water heater, I drain about 1/2 of it
out...plenty of room for expansion should the water freeze. I don't know,
a few gallons of water vs. frozen/burst pipes and a real mess to deal
with....I'd probably go the drain route (actually, I already have). I'm
sure there are other alternatives that I'm not aware of but draining seems
like the less risky of the ones I know.
Cheers,
cc