I live in a modern house (around 4 years old), it has a large and small water tank in the attic, a hot water tank in an airing cupboard, and a boiler (central heating) in my garage on the wall.
Tonight the hot water tank in the airing cupboard has decided to spring a leak. Can't actually see or feel where the leak is coming from, but the floor is wet - as is a few patches on the ceiling under the airing cupboard!
What I've done is I've turned off all water entering the house via the stopcock under the kitchen sink. I did this as I was unable to find a stopcock in the attic on the water tank for the feed to the hot water tank. Turned on all hot & cold taps to drain the water (the large water tank in the attic is now empty, the smaller one (for central heating?) is still full). Finally I drained the hot water tank via the draincock in the airing cupboard.
Also, the central heating and hot water systems are turned off.
What I'm unsure of is:
Can I run the central heating with the water turned off ?
Is it safe to leave everything off for the next few days ? my concern here being the pilot light in the central heating boiler - even though the central heating is switched off. Being without water for a few days isn't an issue as I'm a scruff and would rather wait til after the Easter weekend as it'll save an absolute fortune :) Is it safe though?
Obviously I have no drinking/washing water as if I turn the water on via the stopcock then the hot water tank will fill up (and leak!) - isn't there supposed to be a stopcock in the attic for precisely this reason? I couldn't find it. The only other stopcock I could find is in the airing cupboard and is labelled "hot water isolating valve" - could this be the stopcock for the cold water feed to the hotwater tank? it's on a pipe coming from the attic to the bottom of the hotwater tank so it seems likely, but as it's labelled 'hot water' I'd like this confirmed (also, this stopcock is mentioned seperately from the one that should exist in the attic in the booklet I got when I bought the house)...
Thanks in advance, John (who doesn't want to call out a plumber on Good Friday $$$$)