When you go away for a summer vacation, it’s always a good idea to find someone to look in on your home. In some cases, you may even want to hire a sitter to stay there and look after pets and plants, and to make your home look lived-in to dissuade unwelcome guests.
But rather than just verbalizing a torrent of instructions to whoever is minding your home — be it a drop-in friend or neighbor, or a bona fide hired sitter — it’s better to write everything down in the form of detailed instructions. These are some of the main things that homeowners typically include on their sitter checklist:
- care and feeding of pets
- watering plants, indoors and outside
- opening and closing drapes, blinds and shades
- turning indoor or outdoor lights on and off, or adjusting the timed lights if need be; replacing burnt out bulbs
- caring for appliances, if they are to be used
- location of cleaning products
- operating house alarm
So, that about covers it, right? Hold on — we didn’t mention the HVAC system yet.
The Sitter and the HVAC System
Always go over the use of the HVAC system thoroughly before you leave home, including how to operate and make adjustments on the thermostat.
If you have a Wi-fi thermostat you may be planning to follow local weather conditions and make changes as needed to your home’s thermostat. Explain to the sitter you will make the changes, and that the sitter should contact you if adjustments are needed.
Although you will likely have recently had your annual maintenance for the air conditioner, and probably nothing will go wrong, explain the signs of a few of the most common A/C malfunctions:
- Temperature is too warm (could be a refrigerant leak or high humidity in the home).
- Rattling sound from the indoor cabinet or outdoor unit. Could be a broken fan.
- Dripping sound from indoor cabinet. Could be caused by a plugged-up condensate drain (explain that drains can overflow, so sitter should be on alert for flooding).
For more on including HVAC instructions on your sitter checklist, contact Energy 1 Heating and Air Conditioning.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Lorain, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Guide or call us at 440-201-2959.
Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning
1 (440) 246-5440
Serving the Lorain, OH Area