Is it safe to turn on my central heating with cold tank empty?

[biterbit]

All my upstairs water and hot water stopped working this morning. I checked and my cold water tank was empty. Via my insurance, an engineer called and tried replacing the value into the cold water tank but still no water came through. He diagnosed a blockage, probably limescale furring up the feed pipe from the mains. I'm now waiting for another visit to look at the problem but forgot to ask the engineer if I could use the central heating before he left. The insurance helpdesk said it was OK but did not sound too certain about it.

Does anyone know if it will be safe to turn on my central heating system with no cold water feed to the house (other than in the kitchen, directly off the mains)? I don't want to cause any more problems!

Thanks.

 

[rpm]

Any idea what sort of system you have such as vented or unvented? Also make and model of anything like the boiler you can find would help the guys help you later.

 

[Unregistered]

I think the system is about 25 years old. It has an old Potterton Netaheat 80 boiler. Vented/unvented I'm not sure about - is there a way to tell?

 

[ShaunCorbs]

does it have an f and e tank? eg smaller one to the one what supplies your water

 

[rpm]

biterbit, it really helps us help you if you remember to sign in everytime you post OR click the little circle "remember me" (think that is what it says).

 

[biterbit]

In the loft there is a little tank, separate from the main cold water tanks which I though was related to the heating - does that clarify the type it is.

+ thanks for logging in tip - I hadn't noticed that

 

[ShaunCorbs]

In the loft there is a little tank, separate from the main cold water tanks which I though was related to the heating - does that clarify the type it is.

+ thanks for logging in tip - I hadn't noticed that

yes does that about about 2-3 inches above the outlet pipe?

 

[REDSAW]

chuck a bucket of water in it to get u going
also, is there a stopcock in the airing cupboard thats closed?, it also may be clogged with scale.

 

[joni os]

The small tank is F&E for heating and provided it has a bucket of water in it your heating will be fine. Depress ball cock on F&E to confirm blockage in mains supply.

 

[biterbit]

Yes - it's above the outlet pipe an have just a few litres of water in it.