no water - central heating? 29 December 2010 at 9:05AM in N. Ireland 6 replies 1.6K views

annedunlop

Anyone know if oil central heating can be safely used if mains water is cut off?

iris

Yes, providing there is water in the central heating header tank (ours is in the roof space), the smaller one by the side of the main storage tank.

HTH

Blackfort

annedunlop wrote: »

Anyone know if oil central heating can be safely used if mains water is cut off?

Yes - if you have a pressurized/sealed system ie. no header tank in roofspace

x12yhp

Blackfort wrote: »

Yes - if you have a pressurized/sealed system ie. no header tank in roofspace

There is no reason to assume that an open system would be at risk. The heating loop itself is closed and the header simply tops it up when necessary. So unless your system was already low or unless you have a leak, I don't envisage there being an issue. The heating system water is quite distinct from the hot water you use to wash etc.

ballyblack

and for any reason the water in the system runs low the boiler thermostat should auto-switch it off to prevent any damage

chunter

Apparently, the water for the central heating gets topped up by about a "cupful" over a week.
So you should be ok.

Wee_Bargain_Hunter

Some useful advice here on what to do/not do, depending on which type of heating system you've got. Was something I was unsure about too.
http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/news-dec10-what-to-do-if-there-is-no-water-supply-to-your-house