Originally Posted by kipper

We've never done that, although we probably should if we'll be gone for a few days.

We've not had a flood (knock on wood), but we did have our thermostat batteries die while we were away for a week. We'd set the thermostat to 50 F, figuring that it was warm enough to keep pipes from freezing, but that we wouldn't go through much oil. We returned home to find that the thermostat read 32 F, and the furnace would not turn on at all. The pipes were frozen (there was ice in the toilet).

Of course, it was a Sunday afternoon, so the service call was $110. The technician arrived, couldn't figure out what was wrong, and eventually realized it was the thermostat batteries. He didn't charge us for the batteries.

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