I am in mid-Michigan where winters can be long and cold. I am selling a house, which is vacant, and I am looking for advice on if I should drain the water pipes and turn off the gas water heater during the winter months. I would rather not pay high gas bills to heat water that I am not using. The furnace will be on at 55 degrees to ensure that pipes will not freeze. Thanks

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Originally Posted by antonete

I am in mid-Michigan where winters can be long and cold. I am selling a house, which is vacant, and I am looking for advice on if I should drain the water pipes and turn off the gas water heater during the winter months. I would rather not pay high gas bills to heat water that I am not using. The furnace will be on at 55 degrees to ensure that pipes will not freeze. Thanks

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If you're going to heat your home during the winter months then you should be OK, however, if you didn't choose to run the furnace I would recommend draining and blowing out the water lines, filling all the traps with motor oil or anti-freeze and pouring a gallon of anti-freeze into each toilet until it flushed away the water and retained the anti-freeze in the trap.
Good luck, Tom