Christine wrote:
Hi -- I purchased a small ski house in Canada last year so it's my
second winter. When I bought the house there were a fair number of
cracks in the walls, which my neighbor said was a result of rapid
heating - i.e. the previous owners would leave the house unheated when
they weren't there then crank it when they were, resulting in the
cracks. When I got the cracks fixed/the interior painted this summer,
though, the contractor who did the job said that absolutely wasn't the
issue, it was a bad taping job that caused the cracks and I didn't
need to worry about heating the place when I wasn't there. It does get
cold up, up to -20F at times last winter.

So what's the truth? I don't want to ruin the new walls, but at the
same time if there's no reason to heat it I'd rather not. It's
electric heat and can be quite expensive. If I should keep it on, how
high should it be? The neighbor says 60 degrees. Thanks for any
guidance (I'm a female, first time homeowner with fairly limited
domestic knowledge at this point!).

Hi,
I have a cottage out in the woods here in Alberta. It is for 4 season
use and built for that. Has NG furnace and fire place. When not in use
year round, I set the thermostat at 10 deg. C. Of course in summer
furnace never kicks in at that setting. In winter, it does a few times
when weather gets real cold. The building is of 2X6 walls with R20
insulation. When I go out there in winter I turn on fire place and set
the thermostat to 20 deg. C or so. Never had wall cracking problem.
If you don't heat, what about plumbing? It may freeze.
My winter temp. is upto -50 deg. F with wind chill.
Tony