In alt.home.repair on Sun, 17 Oct 2004 20:52:11 GMT Tony Hwang
posted:

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.

Wind chill doesn't count with regard to houses and pipes, unless it is
or was recently raining. Pipes don't perspire, so indoor pipes don't
get wind chill.

Tony


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