Vacation Plans? Here's a Plan for Your Home While You're Away

Vacation Plans? Here’s a Plan for Your Home While You’re Away

a/c, Alton, Bethalto, Collinsville, Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Greenville, Hamel, Highland, Illinois, light timers, lower energy costs, Maryville, programmable thermostats, Soaker hoses, Staunton, sump pump, thermostat, Troy, Vacation Plans

Are you ready for a vacation away from your southwest Illinois home? Before you leave for the airport, it’s important to set up a plan to protect your home, reduce energy costs, and prevent you from coming home to an unnecessary disaster. Consider the following helpful vacation plans and tips:

  • Leave the A/C on and the thermostat up. This is when those programmable thermostats really become handy. Simply set your temperature programming for 85 degrees while you’re away in the summer, and back down to your comfort-level temperature for the day prior to your planned return. For those with manual thermostats, it’s still important to turn up the temperature to save on energy costs. Just be prepared to return to a hot house for a few hours. Either way, it’s important to not turn off the A/C while you’re gone during the height of summer. You want your indoor air circulating to prevent temperatures and humidity from building up and having negative impacts on sensitive surfaces such as wooden floors that tend to expand and buckle in the heat.
  • Check your sump pump. When summer storms hit the Metro-East area, the last thing you want is a broken sump pump that allows a flooded basement. This is especially the case when you’re not home to check whether water is collecting.
  • Turn off the main water supply. This will help prevent minor issues becoming major leaks while you’re gone.
  • Use a soaker hose. Soaker hoses can be set on automatic timers to keep vegetables and flowers well-watered.
  • Unplug electronics. Most of your electronic devices sap power whether they are being used or not. Unplug them to reduce electricity use and protect them from power surges.
  • Use room light timers. Light timers automatically turn on and off lights at programmed times of the night, giving the appearance of an occupied home and warding off would-be thieves.
  • Add antifreeze to your toilets. If your vacation plans take place in the winter, adding antifreeze to toilet tanks help prevent water from freezing and cracking your porcelain.

To learn more about household vacation plans, contact your local HVAC experts at Ernst Heating & Cooling, serving Hamel, Edwardsville, Staunton and other southwest Illinois communities.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Hamel, Alton, Glen Carbon, Highland, Greenville, Bethalto, Edwardsville, Collinsville, Maryville, Staunton and Troy, Illinois about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). 

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