Runbook — Going on vacation

A smart house is easier to leave than a dumb one, but only if you tell it you are going. The three things that actually ruin vacations are a burst supply line, a freeze, and a power outage that drains the batteries while nobody is watching. Everything below is aimed at those three, in that order.

By trip length

The checklist

1. Heat — set it, do not kill it. On the Ecobee, use a Vacation event with your return date rather than a manual hold, so the house is warm again before you walk in. In winter, never set below about 55 °F: the cost of holding a house above freezing is trivial compared with a burst pipe. In summer, an Away setting is enough. See Ecobee.
2. Water — decide deliberately. A failed supply line is the most expensive thing that happens to empty houses. For a long absence, shut off the main (see Start Here) and open a low faucet briefly to drop the pressure. At minimum, close the two valves behind the washing machine, which are the most common failure point in any house.
3. Check the irrigation before you shut the water. Whether the irrigation supply tees off before or after the main house shutoff is to be confirmed at the walkthrough. If it is downstream of the main, shutting the main off in July also stops the sprinklers, and you will come home to a dead garden and dead fruit trees. Confirm this once and write the answer here; it changes the recommendation for the whole summer.
4. Irrigation — set the season, not the trip. The Rachio adjusts to weather on its own, so the right move is usually to leave it running on its normal schedule. Check that the schedule matches the season before you go, and that any rain-skip settings are on. Before a winter trip, make sure the system is already winterized.
5. Energy — raise the Backup Reserve. This is the house-specific step nobody thinks of. If the grid goes down while you are away and the reserve is set low, the Powerwalls can drain and the fridge and freezer go with them. Raise the reserve before a long trip and make sure Storm Watch is enabled so the batteries pre-charge ahead of severe weather. See power outage.
6. Network — leave it entirely alone. Do not unplug anything in the closet to "save power". The doorbell, the lock, the thermostat, the garage controller, the irrigation, and the Tesla monitoring all depend on it. The single most common way people lose visibility of their house while away is tidying the network cupboard on the way out.
7. Access — one temporary code, not your everyday one. If a neighbor, cleaner, or pet-sitter is coming in, give them their own code on the Schlage Encode and delete it when you return. The app lets you see when it was used. Never hand over your own code, and never leave a key under anything.
8. Doorbell — turn notifications up, not off. The Eufy doorbell is your eyes while you are away. Check that motion alerts are on and that someone else can also see them if you will be somewhere without signal.
9. Garage — close it and check it from the app before you reach the freeway. This is the single most useful thing the Linear controller does. Confirm the door reads closed, not just that you pressed the button.
10. Kitchen and bar. Leave the fridge and freezer running, obviously. For a long trip, consider switching off the ice maker so it does not dump ice into a bin nobody empties. The kegerator and wine fridge should stay on — a warm keg line is a job you will not enjoy. Empty anything perishable from the fridge.
11. Mail and trash. Hold the mail, put the trash and recycling carts out or ask a neighbor to handle them if collection falls while you are gone. Carts left at the curb are the clearest possible signal that nobody is home.
12. Windows, blinds, and the obvious. Everything locked including the door from the garage into the house, which is the one people forget. Leave blinds in a normal position rather than all closed.
13. Tell one human being. A neighbor with your phone number, who knows you are away and knows where the water shutoff is, is worth more than every device on this list.

Any temporary lock code you issue, and the WiFi password if a house-sitter needs itSealed credentials sheet · handed over at closing

Winter absences — the extra list

• Never turn the heat off. 55 °F is the working number. Frozen pipes burst on the thaw, not the freeze, so the damage arrives after the cold snap has passed and been forgotten.
• Disconnect and drain hoses from every outdoor faucet, and cover the hose bibs. A hose left attached through a freeze traps water in the faucet and splits it behind the wall.
• Open cabinet doors under sinks on exterior walls so household heat reaches the pipes.
• Confirm the irrigation is winterized before the first hard freeze, whether or not you are traveling.
• Check the Backup Reserve. Winter storms are exactly when the grid here goes down and exactly when the array produces least. Full batteries going into a storm is the difference between a non-event and a cold house.

Long absences — a month or more

• Run every faucet and flush every toilet before you go, and have someone do it monthly. Drain traps dry out and let sewer gas into the house — the classic smell in a house that has been empty.
• Water off at the main, subject to the irrigation question above.
• Consider the gas tankless water heater. With the water shut off it will simply never fire, because it only heats on flow. If you want it fully off, follow the unit’s own instructions rather than closing valves at random — and remember to restore it before the first shower home.
• Have someone physically walk the house at least every two weeks, inside and out, looking for water stains, smells, and anything on the exterior equipment wall that looks unusual.
• Tell your insurer. Many policies have conditions about vacancy periods; an unoccupied-property clause is a bad thing to discover after a claim.

Related pages

• Start Here — the three shutoffs, and the emergency numbers to leave with a house-sitter.
• Ecobee thermostat — vacation events and schedules.
• Power outage — Backup Reserve and Storm Watch, the two settings that matter most before a trip.
• Water leak — for whoever is watching the house.
• Smart-home account transfer — how to issue and revoke guest access properly.

• Tesla — Backup Reserve
  How to raise the reserve before a trip, and why below 20% is flagged as low.
• Tesla — Storm Watch
  Automatic pre-charge ahead of severe weather.
• ecobee — Support home
  Vacation events, schedules, and Away settings.
• Clark Public Utilities — Outages & Safety
  Outage reporting on 360-992-8000; the online form works from anywhere.
• USPS — Hold Mail
  Official hold-mail request, up to 30 days.