Peter Morgan

Dodgey, When you say scooters - do you mean anything under 50cc? (i.e. like mopeds in uk). What about insurance - needed / how much? Peter

I's a pressurised hot water cylinder - bit like our UK hot water tanks, normally white and operates at mains pressure - our one heated by electricity

Thanks very much Monika. I'm not sure about the insulation thing - if the house is left for a month and the heating has failed surely the temperature will be broadly similar to outside (or certainly way below zero if there is a prolonged cold snap)? Anyway, hopefully the electricity will not trip! We had a severe freeze up in 2003 including wrecking our water heater - it was my fault as although I had turned off at the meter i had forgotten to turn on the taps to empty the pipes! Hence the ballon installation

I wonder if someone could advise on the best procedure when leaving my 'maison secondaire' for a month at a time in winter. We have electric heating and a ballon. When I leave the property i turn off the water at the meter and open the small purge/bleed screw. I then turn on all taps in the house and leave the heating on frost setting. The ballon does not empty fully and I'm concerned that this procedure could damage it? Ideally i'd like to rid the system completely of water to prevent any chance of burst pipes if the electric circuit happened to 'trip' when i was away. Any thoughts/guidance gratefully received. The house is in Normandy by the way and so gets pretty cold in Dec-Feb Peter