On Feb 12, 10:02 am, "Alex" wrote:
Hi everyone,

We have an older house we're fixing up and trying to sell, but being
we only visit the house on the weekends we're thinking of shutting off
the water at the street during the week. This house has a gas hot
water heater, so I wasn't sure if shutting off the water would cause
any problems with the water heater, which is about 3-4 years old.

The reason we want to turn the water off is because for one, the house
is old and I don't want a leak to pop-up when we're not there, and
secondly we're afraid some folks in the neighborhood might take water
from the outside faucet because I've seen them doing this to other
houses.

Thanks for any advice.

Alex


You can turn the water off and it shouldn't cause any problems. It
is possible though that a cup or two of water could emerge from the
TPR valve, because when water is heated, it expands. With many
systems, the small amount of expansion is taken up by the municipal
water system, giving it a place to go. By closing off the valve, that
cup of water may emerge from the TPR valve, unless you have an
expansion tank in the system.

One obvious solution is to turn the water heater to the pilot setting,
which will also save you energy cost during the week it's off.