IS, just read parts to mm, if you are going to use it every weekend, and putting full value on what your wife wants. why drain it? super insulate, put in standard high efficent heating, and a smart thermostat.. set to 45 when you leave and turn it up on smart phone on drive up... you enter it's warm start stove unpack. wife happy. giver her what she wants..
For some reason this scenario sounds too good to be true. Location and budget have yet to be set. We have ideas on both but it will come down to the numbers game when it all comes together, starting with a lot and the price to build after that. I just wanted to test the waters with ideas to get a head start here.
hey, it always good to research it before hand, if you are going to use it that much that would be my recommendation. Why work harder then you have to.. when you know your location get average heating degree day units.. let's say average temperature in Burlington 30 miles south of me is 20 in February if you heat to 45 that's 25 degree average that day to heat! build efficient home you know how many BTUs, you need from blower door test pick furnace you can get a good idea of cost to heat second home. if you set it up to winterize all the better. just an idea up here banks pay guys to go winterize homes when foreclosed upon to protect collateral look one up and buy him lunch...
I helped a friend build a small place using PEX piping and put drains at the low points. Lowest temp is about 5 degrees in January and February. A thought I had about the electric H20 heater so that it does not need to be drained- install a 240 volt time clock and switch it on for 15 minutes every 24 hours. Just enough to keep the tank from freezing. Has anyone tried that or something similar?
Have you considered solar/wind options to allow for a few hours of electric heat a day while you're gone? and have you considered renting it out? i'd like to go for a weekend :d
Good idea until the power goes out... I've considered having a genny there but it won't an auto start backup.
I have a log cabin that I go to for weekends etc. in North West PA and while we don't as cold as you, this winter was brutal as well so I will fill you in on a few things that I have. First, I am a crawlspace w/ concrete slab (We hit solid limestone at about 4' so that was all she wrote without getting expensive to blast the basement deeper). I have a natural gas boiler system for hot water heat and I have antifreeze running through the system. When I am up a lot (every weekend- 2weekends) I basically leave the heat at about 60 deg and kick it up a little higher once I arrive or start a fire in the fireplace to take the chill out. If I am not up a lot, I drop the system to about 45-50 degrees and have never had a problem. We do lose electric often but never usually longer than about 6 hours and then the system kicks back on where it was set (no resetting of anything needed). I do not drain any of the water out of the system but I shut the well breaker off when I leave and leave all the sink doors open to not trap any cold air in the cabinets around the pipes. I am lucky in that I have a great neighbor that if we have a bad storm or something happen he goes and checks on the camp etc and calls me if something happens. I leave the heat up about 60-65 deg. like I said and I believe my worst gas bill this year was about $200 in Feb or March, well worth the money when I come in from outside carrying my stuff and I am not freezing my balls off for a couple hours until the camp is comfortable. One suggestion I have as I had a problem this winter from all the us build up on the roof and then the thawing in the spring, ICE GUARD the Whole Roof. I had my first issue since the camp was built in '90 with water coming in because it made its way up past the ice guard a few feet up the roof and came in the master bedroom Good luck and enjoy, the weekend homes seem like a lot of money and work until you get away from the daily grind and can sit back and enjoy it, and as a bonus, my phone does not work at my cabin
