[Alie222]

I have White Pelican Home Watch. They're great and will even put deliveries in the house (no charge). In addition to the things folks were saying above, WP also had me keep my fans on low because I don't have a humidistat and suggested to freeze a cup of water and put a penny in it. This way if the power went out we would know because the penny would be near the bottom of the frozen cup.

[DaleDivine]

Originally Posted by Professor

Place a drop or two of bleach in your toilets and the cover with Saran Wrap. Works great. Turn off water at main line in garage. Turn off water heater at breaker. Thermostat at 82 will work fine.

Checked on a snowbird friend's home and he had Saran Wrap on the master bathroom commode. There was a small frog swimming around in it.

[midiwiz]

Originally Posted by MX rider

I've tried searching but couldn't find the answers I need.
We just bought a home in TV. We're not retired yet. But we plan on doing so next fall.

Until then we'll be coming down on and off for a week at a time when we can use vacation time.
I've seen where people say to tape over drains to keep bugs out, and to put saran wrap over the toilets to keep the water from evaporating. just wondering if this is good advice?
Also, what temp should I keep the house at in the summer?
Any other tips or advice is much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

where did that come from? LOL nope that's ridiculous

keep your house ho higher than 80, but also a wifi thermostat would help. most FL homes can withstand a house at 80. I prefer 76. I'd shut off the water, however the only issue you will have is drain flys. which aren't all that difficult to get rid of (hot water, bleach & soap) make sure you have your exterior pest control done etc.

Also the obvious things - blinds closed, etc. it's really not all that difficult.

[Lpkammer]

We leave for 4 months every summer and were told by the mold inspector not to let our house temp be over 75, lots of black mold in Florida.

[Luggage]

Make sure your grass is mowed and shrubs cut regularly!

[Papa_lecki]

There is another VERY good post someplace here (from around Jan 2021) about what to do when you leave. It has a link to a checklist, created by one of the universities in Florida.
Here’s the article

https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/lakeco/fi...sonal-Home.pdf

I tried to find it, but I couldn’t. Someone will find it.

[Maxsan]

I installed a temperature/humidity monitor (Govee brand) which will let me know if ac goes off….then the humidity would be a serious issue…repair ac asap.

[ctmurray]

Originally Posted by MX rider

I've tried searching but couldn't find the answers I need.
We just bought a home in TV. We're not retired yet. But we plan on doing so next fall.

Until then we'll be coming down on and off for a week at a time when we can use vacation time.
I've seen where people say to tape over drains to keep bugs out, and to put saran wrap over the toilets to keep the water from evaporating. just wondering if this is good advice?
Also, what temp should I keep the house at in the summer?
Any other tips or advice is much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

If you have someone who can come in, they can flush toilets. Neighbors often do this for free but there are people you can hire. I turn off the water to the house, so I do cover toilet and tank with saran wrap, I even tape the edges of wrap to hold it to the porcelain. This holds water for 5 months while we are gone. The house water on/off is in the garage but this leaves the irrigation on.

I purchased a thermostat that will turn on AC based upon temperature (I set mine to 80) or humidity (60%). The setting even has a name called "Florida setting". I have found that the humidity really never gets that high with the 80F temperature. But I use it anyway.

Having a neighbor to look after your house and have a key is very useful. I have a sensor in the house that measures the temp and humidity that I can see on the internet (some thermostats have this now). And they have had to come over when there were a few issues. They can let the service people into your house. Mine turned on the watering for extra time when my yard looked to be drying out too much.

I do put rubber stoppers in sinks where I can remove the sink plug, or I put box sealing tape over them. I put some mineral oil in the washing machine drain tube to keep it from drying out.

I unplug most things and use the circuit breaker to turn off electricity to the stove and laundry. I keep the refrigerator on, we leave some items in there during the away time. The fear is summer lightening damaging your stuff. The sensor I have knows when the power goes out and will alert me.

[fireman]

Originally Posted by MX rider

I've tried searching but couldn't find the answers I need.
We just bought a home in TV. We're not retired yet. But we plan on doing so next fall.

Until then we'll be coming down on and off for a week at a time when we can use vacation time.
I've seen where people say to tape over drains to keep bugs out, and to put saran wrap over the toilets to keep the water from evaporating. just wondering if this is good advice?
Also, what temp should I keep the house at in the summer?
Any other tips or advice is much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

A lot of good answers here.
We do a lot of these but we fill small ziplock bags with water and set on the drains.
Seemed better than taping them

[thevillages2013]

All your drains will either close or can be plugged except shower drain. A piece of rubber like the thing you would use to get a stubborn jar lid off works great with something slightly heavy sitting on it. A/C on 80 , heat on 60-66. The Saran Wrap on the toilets actually does work but bleach is your friend there. Depending on how long you will be gone you may experience a terrible smell when you return. After a few months the p-traps in all your drains (except your toilets) will dry out and sewer gas will be seeping out . Also the water (especially hot) may be stinky from sitting there that long. Run water in all drains right before closing them for departure. A reliable homewatch person would be a good idea but there are some that are completely worthless. Just going in a home and looking around is all some of them do.

[Homer49]

Mentioned several times above, but a good home watch service will provide a lot of peace of mind for low cost, and will have a good list of everything you and they should do.

We’ve used Relax Home Watch & Lawn Care and are very pleased.

[toeser]

Reading several of the comments makes me ask, why heat your Villages home at all in the winter when you are gone? The interior of your house is never going to freeze. Winter humidity is low. Frankly, I doubt anyone's house would drop below 50 all winter.

We are gone all summer and air condition to 80. Seems to work.

[Larchap49]

Originally Posted by MX rider

I've tried searching but couldn't find the answers I need.
We just bought a home in TV. We're not retired yet. But we plan on doing so next fall.

Until then we'll be coming down on and off for a week at a time when we can use vacation time.
I've seen where people say to tape over drains to keep bugs out, and to put saran wrap over the toilets to keep the water from evaporating. just wondering if this is good advice?
Also, what temp should I keep the house at in the summer?
Any other tips or advice is much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Tape over drains not necessary, saran wrap over toilets will keep them cleaner. Make sure to sync your thermostat to your phone so you can control the temp from anywhere. Keep it at 80 degrees and every now and then cool it to around 72 to 75 to lower the humidity if you see it getting high. Turn off the water at the main in the garage or the box in the yard. Try to meet a neighbor that would be willing to monitor your irrigation or that you would let have access to let your lawn company make adjustments. You could also replace irrigation timer with wifi unit so you could adjust.

[Ski Bum]

For piece of mind, I hung up some security cameras. One or two outside to monitor the grass, trees and shrubs. I have one in the garage, laundry room, and kitchen. All have temperature sensors. Let's you track the little things, like forgetting to cancel the newspaper, you can see if the lawn service and pest people have been there. I also put my contact info on the front door.

[jrref]

Originally Posted by Malsua

I've installed a number of Honeywell WiFi thermostats. I've also installed a couple nests.

I much prefer the Honeywell because you can set it to a temperature and it doesn't try to out think you. Last fall when I was living here in FL and traveling to NJ for work about once every 6 weeks, I used my boss's NJ house up there to stay(he also lives in FL). It has a nest. It is set on ECO and doesn't keep the house warm unless someone walks past it. I'm gone for 12 hours, come back to a quite cold house. Set a temp..2 hours later, it's cooling off again. It was maddening.

I had 3 zones with Honeywell WiFi in my NJ house and one each in the two houses I own in FL. I've installed them for others too. I've even removed a Nest for a friend and installed a Honeywell for the reason I listed above.

You can turn that home/away feature off in the settings on the Nest thermostat and it will work exactly like the honeywell. I've had both.