How can I turn hot water off?

[jinks]

Just moved into a new house with an old-fashioned boiler / water heater / emersion. I can turn the cold water off at the mains but the hot water seems to run out still. I can turn this off partly via one of the nobs in the airing cupboard but it's still dribbling out quite a bit - this seems to be hot water.

There are several pipes and tubes in that cupboard and I've turned off every nob I can but it still drips out so I don't know what to do!

The shower is dripping even when off which is why I want to undo it and take a look.

 

[Burnerman]

The copper cylinder is fed from a tank in your loft.....one of the valves you have turned should shut off the flow to the bottom of the copper cylinder. if you have a gate valve (red wheel to turn) these often don't shut off fully. There are a few ways in which to progress from here but for ease:
Tie up the ball valve in the large loft tank to stop it from filling, then turn the hot taps on until they run dry i.e when the tank above is empty.
The shower (presumably gravity fed) will either be supplied with cold water from the same tank although its not unknown for it to have a tank of its own.
Give us a pic of your hot water cupboard and we'll identify the pipes for you.
John

 

[jinks]

Thanks John! Here is the inside of my cupboard - also upstairs in the loft are 2 big tanks - one with a dripping sound - and 1 small one with a toilet stopcock thing inside.

 

[Burnerman]

OK here we go.
The loft tanks.....the small one is the central heating header, leave it be - the tank should have about 4" or so of water in it.
The other two.....lift the lids clear and you should see a ball valve in both (or maybe only one if the tanks are linked together.) These supply gravity systems such as your hot water and shower. Both of these tanks should be full, but not up to the overflow.
Tying the ball valves up with string will prevent the tanks from refilling as the emptying takes place....it means you can keep the house mains water on.
The hot water cupboard has three gate valves. From what I can see, leave the left one alone. The other two - one feeds the shower and the other should feed the copper cylinder. Closing them both should isolate your shower to allow for maintenance but as I have said, they often don't close off fully - hence the need to drain the system down.
Hope this helps a bit!
John

 

[jinks]

That's incredibly helpful - thanks for your generous time!

 

[Burnerman]

You're most welcome......maybe that was the easy bit!!
Shower spares are available from the showerdoc, but do look for identification if you can.
John