Many people who own country houses or just summer cottages are seriously tormented by the question - what will happen to the house, its decoration, as well as all the installed furniture, if the house is not heated throughout the cold season? This raises another question - what is better for the house: to leave it unheated for the whole winter or to come there from time to time and heat the living quarters? This issue needs to be addressed. So, what will happen to your dacha if you leave the house without heating in winter.
Different parts of the house and furniture may react very differently to such a test. First of all, because different materials used in finishing, repair, and furniture manufacturing react differently to such tests.
Food products
All food that is freely available will arouse the interest of wild animals. First of all, mice and rats will come running to such delicacies. They will not only destroy all the supplies they can get to, but will also leave traces of their presence in the house. We can say that the owners of the dacha are very lucky if the rats do not decide to make a nest in the house. These animals' front incisors grow constantly, and if rats need to get to food, they will chew not only plastic or tin, but even concrete.
The only material that rats cannot handle is glass. But a large supply of food in banks can attract homeless people.
All products should be taken with you to the city, or thrown away if they are not of particular value.
Why is it safer to warm up the house?
If you make mistakes when preserving your home, you may experience burst pipes in the room. In this case, you can lose furniture, interior items, and household appliances. Most often, pipes are hidden inside, so finding and replacing the required section will not be easy and may result in serious repairs to the house.
Without waiting for the weather to warm up, you can open the summer season earlier and start using water supply and sewerage. No re-preservation is needed.
Experts recommend heating buildings. A heated house will serve its owner longer and will not require major repairs. Modern equipment allows you to regulate the temperature and monitor what is happening in the house from any distance.
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In general, the smart home system has become available not only to very wealthy people, but also to those with an average level of income. If you decide to go outdoors in winter, you won’t have to spend a lot of time warming up the room. When the house is empty, you can maintain a minimum temperature, and before arrival, warm it up to a comfortable temperature for a person to live in.
Alcoholic drinks
In addition to the fact that alcohol causes an uncontrollable desire to drink in people without a fixed place of residence, it does not tolerate low temperatures well. If the thermometer drops below minus five, the water in the drink begins to crystallize. As a result, the bottle either breaks or the cork pops out.
Canned vegetables or fruits
If the house is not heated in winter, the temperature inside the room will definitely drop below zero. Under such conditions, preservation in glass jars will become unusable. The lid may rip off, the jar itself may burst, but more often than not its contents freeze and lose its taste characteristics.
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Fresh vegetables or fruits
Such food products can only be left if the dacha has a good basement. In a normal room, high humidity levels and low temperatures will cause vegetables and fruits to freeze or rot.
In order to preserve the harvest in the basement, you need to camouflage the entrance well, and also attach the lid to the room with something heavy so that wild animals do not get inside.
Preserving a car for the winter: 7 main rules
Is it necessary to prepare a car for long-term parking? Of course yes! Even if it is modern and sophisticated.
“...I bought my first car - a yellow three-ruble car.
Absolutely trouble-free! It always started - even when I left it for six months in Moscow in the winter!” Mikhail Zhvanetsky
Drivers who do not use a car from autumn to spring were previously called “snowdrops” by professionals. However, among car enthusiasts these were the majority: only a few drove their cars all year round. And this was understandable: in those days people bought a car, as they say, for life, and therefore no one wanted to kill it with winter driving. In addition, no one had really heard about winter tires at that time, and the main route of travel was the dacha, which was also inactive in winter. And there were no normal oils or antifreeze.
Today no one will believe this: driving almost everywhere has become year-round. But nevertheless, a cohort of lucky cars that are not used in winter still exists. People have different reasons: some people still travel only in the summer from and to their dachas, others periodically go on long business trips and other voyages, others simply want to take a break from their personal car for at least a few months a year. But they all have to solve the same problem: what can be done with the car now so that they can safely start using it in the spring?
If you delve into the literature of past years, you will get the impression that the conservation of a car is a kind of natural disaster. Drain the water, pour oil into the cylinders, plug the muffler with oily rags, put the car on trestles, unloading the suspension, take the battery home, etc. Well, at that time the advice was appropriate. However, modern cars make the task somewhat easier. In my opinion, it is enough to pay attention to the following fundamental circumstances.
Bed linen and clothing
In addition to the fact that these items are often carried away from dachas by thieves, during the winter the fabric acquires an unpleasant odor, which is difficult to get rid of. There is also a risk of damage from mice and rats that like to live in bedding.
If it is not possible to take clothes and bedding with you, then all things need to be put in a closet, or even better, placed in vacuum bags. Also, do not neglect anti-moth products and flavorings to prevent the smell of dampness. You can arrange bedding and clothes with branches of lavender or juniper. It is advisable to place sachets of silica gel between the layers of fabric - it is usually placed in the box with new shoes.
Is it possible to leave the boiler on unattended?
It all depends on what kind of heater we are talking about. Thus, a solid fuel boiler cannot be left unattended; its operation is maintained manually; fuel must be constantly added to the stove. It is not recommended to leave gas and electric heaters turned on for more than a day, otherwise the system may overheat, which will lead to damage to the device. There is also more advanced equipment, equipped with remote automation, which allows you to monitor and regulate the operation of equipment via cellular communications or the Internet. If any problems occur, the user is immediately notified.
Liquid detergents and chemicals for the garden
Soap or washing powder can be left at the dacha. This applies to all chemicals in dry form. But liquids will become unusable when exposed to low temperatures. Most of these substances can be used indoors.
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Passion by tension
If you are going to come to your dacha during the cold season, and the voltage in the network of your village or SNT “jumps” or “sags” (this becomes especially noticeable when neighbors start turning on the heaters en masse), it makes sense to get a voltage stabilizer. Its power is selected by summing up the energy consumption of those devices that you usually turn on.
In difficult conditions, the following cannot be done without a stabilizer: a TV, a refrigerator (especially new models), a computer, a microwave oven, a stove or a stove with induction burners. Heaters (without an electronic control unit), a kettle, and a simple electric stove do not need a stabilizer, although at reduced voltage they will heat up more slowly.
Electrical devices
If the room is not heated, the humidity level in it increases. This may deteriorate the condition of household electrical appliances.
Metal parts of electrical appliances become rusty. If it is not possible to transport such devices to the city, you should treat the metal parts with machine oil and ensure sealed packaging.
Equipment that runs on batteries should not be stored at low temperatures, otherwise it will become unusable. If necessary, you can simply remove the battery and take it with you.
If there is a refrigerator in the house, it should be turned off, defrosted, thoroughly rinsed and dried. It is recommended to completely turn off the electricity during the winter.
To protect household appliances from thieves, it is worth pretending that they are out of order. For example, you can remove the door from a washing machine and take it into your apartment. Some summer residents paint refrigerators or washing machines in bright colors. This disguise provides additional protection against thieves.
Which boiler is the easiest to maintain?
The easiest thing to maintain is an electric heater. The worst thing that can happen to it is software problems, which can be easily fixed through computer diagnostics. All other boiler equipment requires periodic maintenance, checking and cleaning of chimney pipes. The most difficult thing to care for is a solid fuel boiler. Here, cleaning the chimney and heat exchanger should be done annually, and in some cases even several times a year. In this case, after each use the ash pan must be cleaned. In addition, when installing such a unit, it is necessary to provide in advance a dry and sufficiently large room for fuel storage. To heat a medium-sized cottage, about 15 cubic meters are required. firewood in season.
Electric pump
If the dacha has an autonomous water supply system and the well is equipped with a submersible pump, then such a device can be left only if there is complete confidence in safety. In order to prevent equipment from freezing, the well or borehole should be insulated.
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Very often, surface pumps are used in dachas, which fail when exposed to low temperatures. Such a device must be taken into the apartment and stored at a stable temperature.
Before leaving the dacha, you should pack the washed dishes in plastic wrap and spread poison for mice and rats in the room. Gas and water must be turned off. All padlocks should be lubricated with grease and covered with plastic bottles to prevent moisture from entering. You should also check the condition of the roof and gutters. If possible, window openings should be covered with wooden panels. This will help avoid robberies and the consequences of natural phenomena.
It is also necessary to check that there is no water in all possible containers and hoses. If through carelessness it remains, then over the winter this container will become unusable from repeated defrosting and freezing.
If possible, it is worth connecting the house to the alarm system. The signal must be sent to a security company, or to the owner’s personal phone.
Shutdown rules
The shutdown procedure is individual for each brand of boiler unit, but in general it has common stages. The manufacturability of the process of stopping the unit depends on the purpose and design - single-circuit or double-circuit devices. The shutdown of a double-circuit boiler for the summer period will be partial, that is, the heating equipment will be turned off, and the DHW load will continue to function.
General steps to shut down the unit:
- Turn off the gas valve. There are 2 options - only for the main burner or together for the main burner and igniter.
- In the first case, the handle is turned clockwise and set to the “ignition” position, while the main device will be turned off, but the pilot will continue to function.
- In the second case, the knob is turned clockwise to the “off” position, which will shut off the gas to all burners.
- You can turn off the auxiliary equipment, fans and smoke exhausters, 15-20 minutes after shutting off the gas.
- Stop the circulation pump after the network water has cooled to room temperature.
- Turn off power to the device.
- Preserve the unit according to the manufacturer's instructions.
- Switching off a double-circuit unit in the summer follows a slightly different procedure.
- First, the heating line is closed with a three-way valve; in this case, the coolant flows from the heating system into the secondary hot water boiler.
Turning off the gas boiler begins by turning off the gas valve
