Well this is my first time here so hopefully I'm in the right category.

We have a 2nd home in NH that we've been winterizing for the past years due to the high heating costs in the winter. Now we are planning on replacing the wooden crawl space/basement with a poured cement foundation for several reasons. The utilities are down there and the water is from a well. Now for my question. How feasible would it be to keep just a small 10x10ish utility room in the basement very well insulated and heated on a separate zone? The cost would be much less than keeping the entire house at 45-50 degrees. It's a forced air furnace on 1 zone currently and the water heater is electric. Would it be too much effort to winterize and de-winterize every time we used it? I was thinking of adding a wood stove to heat the rest of the house (1200 sq ft) when we're there.

Thanks, Ray

I see some issue with this plan if you are thinking that the rest of the house will be totally unheated in the winter. You still must drain all pipes, add anti freeze to all toilet tanks and bowls, etc... basically winterizing like you always have been except for the water heater. Also you would need to move the thermostat or tie in a new one just for the 10x10 room but your furnanc will still blow warm air to the whole house until the 10x10 is heated to the set point. Unless you are a special duct diverter to your heating system. How often do you use this 2nd home during the winter months?

The well enters the house at the utility area so we wouldn't need to winterize that either. I was thinking about putting electric baseboard heat in the room so the furnace would not be needed at all in the winter if we used a wood stove to heat the rest of the house when we're there. As for draining the pipes and antifreeze, I was hoping to add some well placed drains to make it easier but maybe it's still too time consuming. We haven't used it in the winter for a long time but hope to go up maybe 3-4x a year so it's not worth heating the entire house for such little use.

Thanks

Winterizing the water should not be that bad. It's what? Turn off hot. Turn off cold. Open farthest and lowest hot and cold tap. Leave open.

Turn water heater to pilot. That large of a mass isn't going to freeze.

Fill traps with vegetable oil to prevent evaporation.

Done.

There are other reasons to heat the space and that's damage to furniture and wood.

What am I missing?

Except the outside hose bibs, might have to be separate.

Winterizing a home isn't quite that simple. Oil is great to prevent evaporation in a trap but not a perfect winterizer since it displaces most but not always all of the water. You also have every toilet tank to completely drain or add anti freeze and every toilet supply pipe has to be opened and drained at the stop. Water softners and water heaters will freeze solid in an unheated cabin during the winter, they won't leak until they thaw. It is a real pain in the rear and that's why I leave my log cabin at 45 degrees in the winter, I can control the furnace from any telephone.

Good to know. Thanks.