Plumbing winterization complete. Do I need to keep heat on ?

[Manmath D.]

So my SFR did not sell as expected. I do not want to put it back on rent. Will list it in spring 2021. My realtor has set heat on at 60 degrees. Plumbing was winterized today, and I was wondering if it was ok to turn off the heat in the house. One less bill to worry about. Heating bill is high where the rental is. What would you do ? Thank you.

[Jim K.]

The technical reason you should leave the heat on low is that a lot of the materials used to build home don't do well at low temperatures and/or low humidity. This is generally more true in more modern homes, but while old homes have less trouble, the trouble tends to be in hard-to-handle areas. At low temperature, lots of plaster will shrink and crack off old walls, for instance, heavily-worn cast iron drain piping will dry out even more and crack. In a more modern home you'll see laminate and engineered flooring come apart and any particle board or MDF construction start to flex and warp.