Back-up/supplemental heat

I didn't say "poor insulation," I said "poorly insulated."

I'm in Washington, DC. There are lots of houses built in the 19th century, almost all of them are poorly insulated. The winter design temperature is 21F. Every few years we get a cold snap in the single digits, pipes are freezing all over town when that happens.

When you buy standard baseboard heaters most wire them to a wall mounted stat.

But they (the same BB manufacture) will sell thermostats that mount directly on the baseboard.

They are simple thing usually with just #s on them. A bit inconvenient to have to bend over to adjust the temp

If I were you I would cut the original molded plugs off every one of those heaters and put on industrial grade plugs that are much less likely to overheat.

Portable space heaters are really not meant to be used unattended, and that is cheap insurance against the plugs melting down (I have seen this happen) and catching fire.

You raise a good point about the receptacle itself; but I have seen the difference more than once in the running temperature of plugs on space heaters and in one case a 120 V clothes dryer after the original molded plug was replaced with an industrial grade plug with solid screw terminals.

If he has 20 A circuits, as noted they should have 20 amp receptacles, which would handle those heaters easily

@mattmia2 that may still be true, but in my house, receptacles fed by 20A circuits get 20A receptacles. That way I can tell by looking at the receptacle how much current is available in that circuit.

You can have all the 20 A circuits you have ability to provide from the breaker panel

I don’t think the code requires 15A plug circuits?

Kitchens have 20A, every circuit in my shop is 20 except lights

I think the OP suggested he had 20A circuits throughout his rooms?

If he has 20A circuits and receptacles and follows @Steamhead suggestion to upgrade the cord caps, that should provide piece of mind

Depends on your idea of aesthetically pleasing but I have and like one of these vented gas stoves. Can plug it in for AC ignition but also have a couple D-cell batteries in it for when you go away and it will then ignite even if power goes out.

https://www.napoleon.com/en/ca/fireplaces/products/gas-stoves

Look. I realise that I am somewhat contrarian — and worse, have a conflict of interest, but…

As I have said before in response the the backup heat when going away for a couple of months, there are really only two choices as regards freezeups.

One, drain the structure. While this won't help with other types of damage, it will prevent the pipes from freezing and thus prevent catastrophic damage when they thaw. And I do mean catastrophic, as in a total loss of the house and everything in it — and years of litigation with the insurance people about contents (they're usually pretty good about replacing the structure, but as cheaply as possible).

Two HIRE a local individual to check the house. That doesn't mean drive by once a week. That means going there, going in, verifying everything is working and secure, at least once a week and after any major outage. This is where the conflict of interest is, as my daughter does just this for several high value properties in our area. And it's not free. She's bonded and insured. Four wheel drive trucks. Tools. Portable generators. Contractors known to her and on retainer on her 'phone. Very good relationships with the power company . Available (she or I or her husband) 24/7.

I agree with the thrust but I'd say remote monitoring has a role to play as well.