Vacation Energy Checklist: What to Turn Off Before You Travel

Last November I was standing in my kitchen at 4 a.m., suitcase by the door, running through the list I keep taped inside the pantry. Two weeks in Minnesota with my in-laws, one greyhound at the sitter’s, a house that would sit at 42 degrees outside for most of it. The list has 14 items on it, and every year I add one or delete one based on what went sideways the last time.

Why the “away weeks” matter more than people think

An empty house is not a zero-energy house. A refrigerator still cycles. A gas water heater still fires to keep 50 gallons at 120 degrees. A router, a modem, a cable box, a game console, a smart speaker, and a few chargers can pull 30 to 80 watts between them, 24 hours a day. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, standby loads account for roughly 5 to 10 percent of residential electricity use in a typical home. Over a two-week trip, that quiet baseline is often 40 to 90 kWh you paid for and did not use.

Getting that number down is not about unplugging everything. Some devices need to keep running, and yanking them causes bigger problems than it solves. The trick is knowing which is which.

The fridge and freezer question

People ask me every year if they should empty and unplug the fridge for a two-week trip. For most trips, no. A modern ENERGY STAR fridge uses about 1 to 1.5 kWh a day, so two weeks is 14 to 21 kWh, maybe $2 to $4 on my Portland electricity rate. Emptying it, defrosting it, and dealing with the smell when you get back is not worth it.

What I do instead:

• Eat down the fridge in the four days before I leave, and freeze anything that will not survive.
• Set the fridge to 37 degrees F and the freezer to 0 degrees F. That matches the FDA-recommended temperature range, and a full freezer holds cold better than a half empty one.
• Fill empty freezer space with gallon jugs of water. Thermal mass costs nothing to add and rides out a short power outage far better.
• Turn off the ice maker. It cycles even when the bin is full and can flood the kitchen if a water line fails while you are gone.

For trips longer than about four weeks, I do empty and unplug, prop the doors open with a rolled towel, and put a box of baking soda inside.

Water heater: vacation mode is real, and most people never use it

A 50-gallon electric tank water heater uses about 12 to 14 kWh a day just holding temperature. That is 170 to 200 kWh over two weeks, easily $20 to $30 gone for water nobody used. Almost every modern tank has a “vacation” or “VAC” setting on the thermostat dial, usually holding the tank around 50 to 60 degrees F. On my old Rheem it is one click below the lowest normal setting.

If you have a gas tank, most models let you turn the thermostat to “Pilot,” which keeps the pilot light lit but stops the main burner cycling. Do not turn the gas fully off unless you know how to relight it. Heat pump water heaters like the Rheem ProTerra have an actual vacation mode in the menu that takes a target date, which is exactly the feature I wish every appliance had.

When you come home, the tank takes 60 to 90 minutes to reach normal temperature, so I turn it back up on the drive from the airport using the app, or ask a neighbor to flip it two hours before we land.

Thermostat setbacks: heat is different from cool

The rules flip depending on the season. In winter, I set my heat to 55 degrees F while gone. That is warm enough to keep pipes and plants safe in a Portland winter, but low enough to save real energy. The old belief that a furnace “works harder to catch up” than it saves is a myth for setbacks of 8 to 10 degrees or more, and the Department of Energy puts the savings at roughly 1 percent per degree of setback per 8 hours.

Summer is trickier. Leaving A/C completely off in a humid climate can cause mold, warped floors, and dead houseplants. I aim for 82 to 85 degrees F as a hold, which keeps humidity in check without cooling an empty house. If you are gone a week or more, an Ecobee or Nest with a proper vacation schedule will pre-cool the house before you land.

Lights, smart plugs, and the security question

An always-on porch light draws attention, not deterrence. What I do is put two interior lamps on smart plugs (I use TP-Link Kasa HS103 plugs, which are cheap and do not need a hub) and schedule them for staggered “someone is home” behavior. One lamp in the living room from 5:30 to 9 p.m., a bedroom lamp from 9 to 10:45, and a bathroom light for one 15-minute window around 11.

Randomize the times by 20 minutes each night if the app supports it. LED bulbs at 9 watts each, running about 5 hours a day, cost pennies for the whole trip.

The 14 item pre-departure list

Here is what actually lives on my pantry door:

1. Fridge to 37, freezer to 0, ice maker off.
2. Water heater to vacation setting.
3. Thermostat: 55 in winter, 82 in summer.
4. Two smart-plug lamps on scheduled rotation.
5. Router and modem: leave on for cameras and thermostat.
6. TV, game console, receiver, cable box: unplug or kill the power strip.
7. Coffee maker, toaster oven, microwave, kettle: unplug.
8. Phone, laptop, and tablet chargers: unplug.
9. Garage door opener: leave on, enable vacation lock on the keypad.
10. Washing machine: turn off hot and cold water valves at the wall.
11. Dishwasher: turn off supply valve under the sink.
12. Main water: shut off for trips longer than 10 days if nobody is checking the house.
13. Plants: single Blumat carrot-and-reservoir setup for indoor pots, or a neighbor.
14. Front porch and one interior camera: verify recording to cloud.

A worked example from last Thanksgiving

Fourteen days, house empty, heat set to 55 (down from 68), water heater on vacation, standby loads cut roughly in half by unplugging the entertainment center and small kitchen appliances. My electric bill for that billing period came in 41 percent lower than the prior November, or about $58 saved on a house that normally runs $140 to $160 that month. The gas bill dropped about $22 because the furnace ran less. Total: roughly $80 back in our pocket for 25 minutes of prep the night before.

The prep only took 25 minutes because I have done it enough times to be quick. Your first pass will take an hour, and that is fine.

What people forget every year

The greatest hits list from friends, family, and my own past mistakes:

• Leaving the garbage disposal side of the sink half full of food. Come home to fruit flies.
• Forgetting the refrigerator water line. If you shut off the main water, drain the fridge line, or the filter can freeze if the house drops below 40.
• Leaving a dehumidifier running with no auto-drain hose. It fills, shuts off, and mold starts within a week.
• Turning off the router when you have a smart thermostat, security camera, or leak sensor. All of them go dark.
• Not telling a neighbor. A five-minute “will you glance at the porch on Wednesday” call is worth more than any camera.

What to check the first ten minutes back

Flip the water heater back up, walk the perimeter looking for leaks under sinks and around the water heater, verify the sump pump ran if you have one, restore the thermostat to normal, and turn appliances back on one at a time rather than all at once. That short methodical restart is what keeps a “successful trip” from becoming a $600 flooring repair from the ice-maker line that quietly failed on day nine.

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