Thanks for all the feedback, very helpful.
I am a penny pincher when it comes to wasted fuel. So, on our old property I set it up so that I could remotely turn the power off to our oil furnace (which also did the hot water). There was no sense running it when we were not there for standby hot water and not that cold out. This saved a lot of fuel.
So with no heat at all the house usually would not drop below 40F until mid December. But of course the house was well insulated and sitting on a ton of granite. I had an alarm that would message me when temp dropped below 40 F and I would turn Furnace on. Usually at 5AM. But we burned less than 200 gallons of oil a year and that included hot water. I had antifreeze in the heating system too, because those baseboard heating pipes are the most vulnerable to freezing.
Like others said, it would take sustained low 20's before the house would drop below 40 F. Can depend on wind too.
As mentioned by others, my guess is 11/1 to Ice Out would be fairly safe for most places as well based on my own (non 3 season in how it behaved).
I know it varies with weather and exact situation at each site and there are many ways to extend usage.
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