I you are away for any length of time then you almost need to stand the usual time pattern on its head - the house needs some heat dribbled into it overnight, but can cope OK during the day.
Personally I open all the doors inside the house (so that it all settles down to an even temperature) and either set the controls to 'permanently on' or set up a new pattern of (say) 'on' from 6pm to 8am and a blip 'on' from noon until 2pm.
As Eccles says, setting the main thermostat at about 10-12C is usually about right.