With energy costs getting so high these days, everyone is trying to save some money wherever they can, but as one apartment owner in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, recently learned, shutting off the heating while on vacation during a harsh winter is not very efficient.

Jacques Nault thought he had walked into a fairytale ice castle when he opened the front door of one of his apartments in Trois-Rivieres, earlier this month. The walls, the ceiling, the furniture, and even the appliances were covered in thick ice; there were abstract ice sculptures everywhere, and the floor was covered by about 30 centimeters (one foot) of ice.

The apartment owner told local news reporters that the ice castle was the result of one of his tenants’ thriftiness. In their desire to save a few dollars on the heating bill, they produced tens of thousands of dollars in damages simply by turning off the heat in the apartment before going away on vacation. Negative temperatures caused the water pipes to burst and cover everything in ice.

“Everything is expensive. The cost of living is getting higher and higher,” Nault said. “People want to save money. For them, heating doesn’t make much difference. If they’re not in the home, they say to themselves, ‘Let’s lower the electricity costs.’ I don’t think that’s a good way to save money.”

“There is water in the ceilings, in the walls, everywhere. Mould will grow,” Jacques Nault added. “We are going to strip, dry, and rebuild according to what is covered by insurance.”

The former tenant was officially evicted from the apartment on January 5th, but it’s unclear if the owner will take any legal action against them to cover some of the costs of the renovation.

So if you live in a place like Quebec, where winters are no joke, and want to save money on heating, maybe dial down the temperature on the thermostat, but don’t turn it off completely. You risk paying way more than you save.