What Summer Travel Means for Your Home's Electrical Setup
Extended summer travel — a week away, a month visiting family, a longer trip — is an opportunity to think briefly about the electrical systems you're leaving behind. Nothing about this needs to be elaborate, but a few straightforward checks and habits before you leave can save you from coming home to a problem.
Appliances: What to Leave On, What to Unplug
The standard guidance is to unplug appliances that don't serve a purpose while you're away. Electronics left plugged in draw standby power and remain exposed to surge events. For a week-long trip, this might just mean a TV and a few countertop appliances. For a longer absence, it's worth doing a more thorough pass through the house.
Specific items to think about:
Refrigerator and freezer. These stay on. Turning off a fully-stocked refrigerator for a vacation creates more problems than it solves. If you're leaving for an extended period and the fridge will be empty, that's a different calculation.
Water heater. Many water heater controls have a "vacation" mode that keeps the tank from cycling to full temperature while you're away. This saves energy and doesn't leave the unit idle in a way that creates problems on return.
Washer and dryer. Unplug these. Neither needs to be energized while you're gone, and a dryer left plugged in after the last load — particularly if the lint trap wasn't fully cleared — is worth eliminating as a variable.
Desktop computers and home office equipment. Unplug anything that doesn't need to be running. Routers and smart home hubs may need to stay active if you're monitoring the house remotely — make those decisions deliberately rather than defaulting to leaving everything plugged in.
HVAC: Vacation Setpoints and Concerns
Leaving for summer travel in New Mexico's climate creates a legitimate question about the thermostat. Running the AC to full comfort temperature in an empty house is wasteful. Turning the AC off entirely can lead to temperatures inside the house that affect furnishings, flooring, and any temperature-sensitive items.
Most HVAC professionals suggest a vacation setpoint that keeps the interior from getting extreme — warm enough to save energy significantly, but not so hot that the house bakes. What that setpoint should be depends on your home's construction, what's inside it, and how long you'll be gone.
For homes with a smart thermostat, setting a vacation schedule is straightforward. For older systems, setting the thermostat to a fixed elevated temperature before leaving works fine.
One thing worth thinking about before travel: if your HVAC system has been showing any signs of strain — difficulty cooling, unusual cycling, unexpected tripping — addressing that before a two-week absence is smarter than leaving it as an unresolved variable.
Solar Monitoring: A Reason to Check In Remotely
If you have a solar system, travel is actually a good time to appreciate monitoring access. The system will continue to operate while you're gone, and monitoring lets you confirm it's working as expected without being home. Most solar monitoring apps let you check daily production from anywhere.
Before leaving, make sure you know how to access your monitoring app and that notifications are enabled for any fault conditions the system might generate. A system that goes offline during your absence — due to an inverter issue, a tripped breaker, or a communication failure — won't fix itself, but knowing promptly means you can have someone check it sooner.
Battery Backup Systems
Homes with battery backup systems have a few specific considerations before extended travel:
Confirm the system is in its normal operating mode before leaving. Some systems have manual override settings that, if left in an unusual configuration, may not behave as expected during an outage.
If your backup system includes a backup gateway with its own internet connection, make sure the home's internet will remain active while you're away — some monitoring and remote management features depend on it.
An Inspection Before an Extended Absence
If you have electrical concerns you've been putting off — a panel that's behaved oddly, an outlet that's stopped working, a circuit that trips more than it should — the period before an extended trip is actually a good time to have an electrician take a look. Leaving a known issue unaddressed while the house sits empty for a month is riskier than addressing it before you go.
Request a quote and we'll schedule a pre-travel check if you have items you'd like evaluated.