Water Mains and F & E Heating Help - What to do?

[sammyluc]

I am going away for the winter

Have a traditional Heating system F&E system. 2 Tanks in the Loft one Large cold water and the small one I presume is for the central heating. and a water cylinder in the Airing Cupboard down stairs and a Valiant Boiler down stairs both located in the kitchen.

For peace of mind I was thinking of Switching off the Mains Supply water Located outside the house, and leaving the Central Heating low at (Frost Protection) Continuous. I wont drain down the loft tanks The main cold one just leave what ever is left there.

My question is, is it ok to do this and leave the Central Heating on? (NOT THE HOT WATER SWITCH) would the heating work as normal if the mains cold water is switched off?
would it have any effect on the heating at all?

I will leave the loft door open. It is a converted loft and I have lagged the pipes that I can access, but the other pipes at too close together to use the lagging and covered with loft insulation on the Top and not the bottom. Both Tanks have protection around as well.


Any help or advice would be great

Thanks

 

[joni os]

Turning water off will stop F&E tank recharging itself. This will not be a problem, short term, unless CH system pumps over and discharges via overflow.(Which is sign of blockage in system and should not normally happen). I would not just rely on frost stat. but also programme heating to come on 1 hour a day with room stat set at 15 C.
Arrange with neighbour to check property in your absence.

 

[rpm]

How long are you going away for?

 

[sammyluc]

Thanks for your reply will be going away for about 1 month. So as said before what i was thinking of doing was turning off main water supply outside of house buy leaving Large water tank full in loft. What my worry was is that i was think of leaving the heating on Continuously at a setting of around 12-13 C. But was wondering if main water supply need to be left on. You say about "CH system pumps over and discharges via overflow" can i just confirm what this means. (would this effect if i off mains from out side?)

 

[joni os]

"Pumping Over". If you find in the heating cycle there is a discharge of water from the overflow from F&E tank then, when system cool and at rest, this loss of water needs to be replenished via the cold water main. Closing off the main would prevent water being replenished and when no more water was in F&E tank, air could enter system leading to circulation failure which in turn would cause boiler to lock out on overheat stat.
As you will only be absent for 1 month, provided there is no overflow at present, this is a very remote possibility. I mention it because to state categorically that turning off main could never effect CH would not be strictly correct.

 

[Simon F]

if you are away for a month

turn the mains water OFF

the possible damage from an uncontrolled leak would be quite dramatic
the possibility of issues with the level of the f+e tank are miniscule

 

[Dotty]

Plus if you're setting the temperature low the liklihood of pumping over is highly remote.

 

[sammyluc]

Hi All thanks for your response. Yes think it would be better and specially it been very cold than usual to switch the mains stopcock from out side off. I will leave then tanks full. Some others have also said it would be good to off the mains and leave the heating on heating on Continuously at a setting of around 12-13 C. Also there is a 15,, stop tap in a boxed enclosure upstairs, which is part of the main line that fills the tanks would i need to turn that off or just leave it and only off the mains from the out side?

Thanks to all for your help

 

[Simon F]

just turn off the main incoming tap to the house,

leave the heating set to what you want to pay for
if its set to about 13 centigrade it would only come on very occasionally
but enough to keep from freezing