An Boiler be left on with water tuned off?

[Traveller 47]

I have a Worcester Greenstar boiler and would prefer to turn off the water supply to the house during 2-week absence. Is it safe to do this?
Advice appreciated.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Combi or heat only eg combi or cylinder?

 

[Traveller 47]

Combi or heat only eg combi or cylinder?

Regular boiler with cylinder.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Just turn the programmer to off eg set heating and hot water to off

 

[Traveller 47]

Si is that a blanket “No”, you cannot do thi?

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Si is that a blanket “No”, you cannot do thi?

No that’s fine I guess incase of anything leaks ?

 

[Traveller 47]

Sorry to labour the point. So are you saying that it is safe to turn off the water and leave the boiler running provided nothing goes wrong.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Sorry to labour the point. So are you saying that it is safe to turn off the water and leave the boiler running provided nothing goes wrong.

Heating eg 10-12dc for frost you will be fine don’t see the need to keep the hot water on / hot

 

[ajspipers]

I believe the answer to your question is: it should be fine. I discovered some years ago that lack of water in the boiler jacket - ie you are unfortunate enough during your holiday break (when you have turned off the stopcock) to have a leak that drains the F&E cistern and the boiler - causes the boiler to shut itself off as it reacts to the sensors on the boiler casing getting too hot. Of course there is always the risk that the boiler circuitry fails to work but that could occur whether you're on holiday or just out for the day and boiler manufacturers usually don't skimp on such safety matters - bad for business!

 

[ajspipers]

BTW, ShaunCorbs point about dropping the target heating temperature to just 12degC is a good one. Many house insurance policies stipulate that as a minimum maintained temperature and, if your house is half-decently insulated, your boiler won't want to be coming on during your absence anyway. We always leave ours on when we are away ever since, many moons ago, we came back to a house that was 6degC and the boiler refused to start as it was too cold! I had to remove the jacket sensors, heat them with a heat gun, start the boiler and wait until the circulating water temperature got up to 10degC before I could replace the sensors and let the boiler function normally! It took 2 full days to get the house up to a decent temperature - never again!