No heating, no double glazing and frost descending - help!!

[devorguila]

Evening all, hoping somebody can help me here!
I've got a Potterton Statesman oil burner (recently serviced) and a Grundfog UPS 15-60 pump. Yesterday, I took a radiator off to hose it out, as it's not heated up for a few months. After I put it back on, it still didn't work, as the hot water supply to that radiator kept stopping.
This morning, the pump started making very loud pumping noises and the central heating stopped working. (The pump only runs when 'hot water' is selected, not when 'central heating' is selected - I don't know if this is normal as I never really listened to it before it started making noises!)
Now, as of this evening, the boiler won't fire up, so I've no hot water or heating.
In the loft there's a red metal tank with a dial on it, a big square tank on stilts, and a smaller green tank - not sure what any of them are!
Any thoughts as to what's gone wrong, and how to put it right? Is it possible that my meddling's just filled the system with air, so the pump's pumping at nothing and the boiler's cutting out as a safety thing? Or something more serious?
Thanks in advance,
Alasdair.

 

[Agile]

You have stupidly drained the pressure out of your system without knowing how to repressurise it.

Luckily its easy, just look in the FAQ section on this site under repressurising.

The objective is to get the black pointer up to 1.5 Bar then it will work. But you might have to reset an o/h stat on the boiler if it still does not work.

Tony

 

[devorguila]

Thanks for response, will try repressurising as per the FAQ. I might have to come back on how to identify an o/h stat though... 'Stupid' is just one of the words I've been calling myself this evening - will know not to tinker in future!
Cheers,
Alasdair.

 

[Agile]

Fine to DIY, but in future learn how to REpresurise BEFORE you DEpressurise !!!

As a professional in the heating industry, I get rid of about 25% of calls by giving free advice to callers on how to repressurise systems or reset overheat stats etc.

The boiler manual should show the location of manual o/h stats.

Tony