Run central heating while turning off water at main?

chi2000 · 29 Nov 2010

Hi all,

I'm going away for a couple of weeks soon and with the weather being cold this time of year I'm going to leave the central heating on low when I'm away.

Now what I want to know is if I can also turn of the main water supply while leaving the central heating on? My reasoning is that if I were to have a burst pipe the water damage would be minimzed.

I don't really know much about my central heating system but I have a very very old glow worm space saver 30 mkII boiler which has 2 switches 1 for central heating and 1 for water. We also have a immersion heater with a seperate switch and a water tank in the loft.

Would the main water supply have to stay on for the central heating to work?

As I'm only going to be away for a couple of weeks I don't want to get the central heating system drained.

Also would there be anything else simple I could do or drain just to be on the safe side.

Thanks in advance and sorry if this seems a silly question.

muggles · 29 Nov 2010

This exact same question was asked by someone else on here yesterday as it happens. Turning off your mains will not affect your heating in any way, so go for it. Remember to open a couple of taps once you've done it to let the pressure out

bengasman · 29 Nov 2010

chi2000 said:
...Now what I want to know is if I can also turn of the main water supply while leaving the central heating on? My reasoning is that if I were to have a burst pipe the water damage would be minimzed....

Unless the burst pipe is a heating pipe in which case the boiler might get very upset.

muggles · 29 Nov 2010

Indeed, but as the OP has stated that the heating will be left on low it's unlikely that it'll freeze

clf-gas · 29 Nov 2010

Its perfectly fine to turn off your mains stoptap whilst running the heating.

You could if you so wish, turn off mains open taps upstairs and down to drain off pipes.

Happy hols

chi2000 · 30 Nov 2010

Thank you all for your quick reply's

Just out of interest what will get drained when I open the taps upstairs and down? Is it just the pipes or also the tank in the loft and immersion heater?

Also how does the central heating get topped up if needed when the water mains is off?

Again sorry if these questions sound silly, just don't have much idea when it comes to central heating and I'm trying to get a better understanding.

muggles · 30 Nov 2010

You'd normally just drain the cold, which will drain just the pipework unless some of your cold taps are low pressure (fed off the tank). It's a bit less of an issue with the LP cold as it's got somewhere to expand to relatively easily anyway, and it's the expansion of ice that causes bursts. The hot water cylinder will stay full and as you'll probably be heating it a bit with your heating on low it's got no risk of freezing

Your central heating will be fine, it's already full, it'll only need topping up if it's leaking.

chi2000 · 30 Nov 2010

So just to confirm, drain only the cold taps?

Last question, would it be best to have the central heating on twice a day for say for an hour or set the stat at around 10 and leave it on all the time?

muggles · 30 Nov 2010

Well you can drain everything if you want but it'll take longer and isn't really necessary, i'd just drop the pressure out of the mains cold and leave it at that. Leave your heating on low all the time

chi2000 · 30 Nov 2010

Exellent, you have just cleared up a lot of questions and worries I had.

Big thanks to you and all the others who posted on my thread.

Leszek · 21 Dec 2010

Hi, being a bit silly, can I assume that turning of the mains water supply to my combi boiler want affect the central heating?

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Run central heating while turning off water at main?

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