A Word To The Wise About Current Weather

[arfur mo]

i remmember the last serious freeze in the 80's, aand covering call outs where people had gone away and turned off the heating, often themains and gas.

this is not a clever move, the house gets cold and pipes more likely to freeze up, either they burst then or do so as they thaw out, so be warned leave heating on at least a low setting, i hope this serves as a warning,

given the snow, i am at home, i've no need to risk the van or my life for work. so i'm doing the good neighbour checkup on several vulnerable neighbours yesterday, as i knowtheir relations can't get over to check, i'm making sure they have heat and adaquate food, just to entio we do have superb neighbours around here.

as i make my rounds i can here what sounds like a distant alarm siren, having several systems within earshot i'm curious, and start to try and tell where it is comming from, but it keeps stopping after about 20 seconds.

finally i locate it, and it's commng from the now empty bungelow of my recently deceased neighbour. i happen to hold the keys for the nephew as they live in Yorkshire. So I go get the keys and open the door - to be looking at an internal waterfal, a pipe has gone in the loft somewhere.

the noise that i had heard is from a smoke detector screwed to the loft hatch, now soaking but still sounding (who said a cheap smoke detector is not worth a carrot?). the old alarm panel is squeeking away in accompanyment, there is about 4 inches of water on the floor wiht water pouring in everywhere like chiselhurst caves.

I isolate the mains and gas before touching any pipes, i find the fuse box and switch off the power which is a recent RCS/MCB consumer setup, but surprisingly nothing has tripped out, given water is comming from every light rose, a right royal state.

anyway, so much water on my glasses i'm not seing much, and i can't find the water stop ****, and i can't find the outside **** either due to the thick snow, now soaked and call the agents, they turn up but they can't get any plumbers out, finally i find the water **** - hidden with a bog brush holder (no brush but holder ws wrapped around it).

had i not had keys, wit the weather no viewings taking place the buiding could have been destroyed, so take fair warning saving a few bob by turning off the heating in these current conditions, can cost a lot more money and distress.

Combi Boilers require pressure of 1 - 1.5 bar in the closed radiator loop, if it falls to far the heating will stop working, there is a gauge on the boiler and usually a simple method of increassing that pressure if low. it has to be done usually every 3 months but some work longer.

please check the instructions for the boiler, and set pressure carefully i to the upper limit, or it could fail while you are away with desasterous results.

Arfur

[Guest Oxo]

By turning on the filler loop and watching the BAR scale go up.

Also remember to bleed the rads before you do the above for airlocks.

[norman]

I have a house that I used to rent, it's currently empty and I have just got it ready to sell/rent again. I go down twice a week and called yesterday to check heating etc as I have it on the lowest temp setting both on the wall stat and the boiler temp (frost stat) the house is on a meter for obvious reasons and it's done about £30.00 this week alone! but much cheaper than a refurb.

By turning on the filler loop and watching the BAR scale go up.

Also remember to bleed the rads before you do the above for airlocks.

I always bleed after filling up (to about 2bar) and any air drops it down slightly.

[Guest Oxo]

Yep