In my "rehab" house, most of the repair/replace work has been because the
house went for a time without any heat. Even when it was still occupied,
the owner closed off most of the rooms to cut the heating bill.
Consequently, the most damage was in those rooms. Damage was severe enough
that it meant tearing out all the plaster walls and replacing them with
drywall, which also meant blowing insulation into those walls. After I
bought the house, I took some good, straight boards upstairs to do some
work. My day job intervened and by the time I got back to the
boards...they'd all warped, badly...from the combination of cold (no heat in
the house yet) and dampness. Even my contractor agreed that most of the
damage to the house was caused by lack of heat and dampness.
The "rehab" house is still unoccupied, but I've got the heat on. It keeps
the water pipes from freezing (an important thing since we've had temps into
the minus degrees) and it keeps the drywall and structure 'happy.' I do
know people around here who shut down their hunting cabins completely (heat,
water, etc.) for the winter, but those are not houses.
My opinion, for what it's worth, is that you're doing just fine leaving some
heat on in the house.
Sandaidh
sandaidh@atlanticbb.net
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