The home is near the poconos. It is a new construction with a solid
pour basement. The only thing I'm worried about is a rise (of 10 feet or
so) where the supply comes from the street into the house, turns from
plastic in the street to 3/4 inch copper in the house and goes up to the
basement ceiling. I've insulated this section to the MAX ( but no heat
tape). But the builders guy said I may have insulated it 'from' any
heat source.

There is no relief valve on this 10 foot rise to drain it. And I don'
have a compressor up here yet. The rest of it I can gravity drain. No
problem shutting the water at the street. I tried leaving the heat off
for a couple of cooler days recently. It went down to only 60 in the
house at night on a night when it was 40 outside (and it was 60 that
day). Being new constr. and well built, it keeps the heat in effectivly.
So, I'm thinking it wont take much heat to keep it at say 55. And I
could shut off the water and drain as a precaution.

It can get cold in this part of the world (extreme lows to -10 possible,
but rare) Highs in Jan and Feb are usually 25 to 30 degrees above with
lows going to 5 to 20 above are not unusual (last year they had a very
warm winter, with most lows only in the 30's). But it's not as cold
as upstate NY.


We are in a valley type setting (no wind) and the house is shielded on
the east by a mountain. The basement has a register for the heat to come
out and the home has an elec. heat pump. All the pipes are inside and
NOT exposed at all. All the windows are double pane with the argon gas
between.

I'm thinking if it costs me over 300 for the heat for 6 months, I might
as wel have a plumber do it the first time and shut it down..???