At what temperature should an unoccupied house be kept at in winter?

Question

We are moving to a new house and unfortunately we don't have our house sold yet. I was wanting a recommendation as to what temperature to keep the furnace going @. I found a good recommendation to turn off the main water line and try to drain the pipes as much as you can so you don't have to worry about pipes freezing. Until we sell it we will be paying for two house payments so of course we are trying to cut cost as much as we can. I was thinking 50 but i i'm just guessing at this point.

Answer 1

Depends on location but 50-55 degrees Fahrenheit is fairly standard.

Answer 2

As the other answer suggests, 50-55 is pretty standard for the purpose of preventing water lines from freezing but there are some other things to consider. I'll also mention that you should consider humidity in addition to temperature. Humidity is measured independent from temperature (aside from the relative humidity), but the important factor here is that usually your humidifier only runs when the heat runs (assuming a forced air system).

• If you have a lot of wood floors or wood furniture, you might opt to keep it warmer and higher RH in order to prevent the wood from shrinking and cracking.
• Some materials also become more brittle at colder temperatures - is there any risk here?
• Do you have any sensitive electronics where 50 might be outside of their operational temperature (if so, turn them off)
• Will you be in the house often, or have contractors working? If so it might be cheaper to maintain a higher temperature versus trying to heat the entire house from 50 to 70 every time someone is present