# Oil fired central heating problems. Advice please.



## Proto (2 Apr 2020)

I’ve bought a house but because of the virus malarkey I’m unable to move in immediately, even though the house is now empty.

it has an oil fired (oldish?) Firebird S floor standing boiler, usual central heating radiators and a hot water storage tank upstairs. I’m not sure if it has a cold water tank in the loft, but don’t think so. There’s a 2 channel Drayton controller for hot water and heating, and a separate thermostat.

As the house will be unoccupied for some weeks, I asked the previous owner, on vacating the property on Monday, to switch off the oil fired Aga, switch off the central heating, turn off the mains water. I thought that would suffice. 

However, I had to make a visit to pick up the keys on Wednesday and was surprised to find the house warm. Boiler was off, heating programmer was set to ‘off’, yet the radiators were warm to touch. Opened both hot and cold taps and nothing came out

Whilst I was there the boiler fired up again. Can’t understand why when controller said ‘off’. I found the wall thermostat (set to 18°C) an turned it to minimum of 10°C. Not sure what else I could do, so locked up and left.

But it’s bugging me and I want to make sure that there’s no risk to the house. I’d like to stop the boiler coming on at all. 

So, can I just switch th electric supply off to the boiler to stop it firing? Will that actually stop it running?



Is it necessary to turn off the oil supply as well? (Gave a quick search for oil stop tap but couldn’t see one)

Why is nothing coming out of the hot water tap if there’s a big storage tank? As far as I know only the cold mains has been turned off.

Or should I just relax and let it run? There’s plenty of oil, so won’t run out.

Help!!

PS house is 60 miles from me and I’m taking huge care to self isolate. Prepared to go back again but don’t want to push my luck.


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## Soltydog (2 Apr 2020)

Proto said:


> So, can I just switch th electric supply off to the boiler to stop it firing? Will that actually stop it running?
> 
> Is it necessary to turn off the oil supply as well? (Gave a quick search for oil stop tap but couldn’t see one)



We have a modern oil heating system, but I'm no expert. I would have though turning the electric supply off was the best option. If you turn the oil off the boiler would keep running until fuel starvation & then would need priming/bleeding before using again 
Our oil tap is on the outlet of the oil tank 

ps fill the tank up now whilst the oil price is so low


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## Spiderweb (2 Apr 2020)

I would have thought turning the thermostat down as you have done won’t send a signal to the boiler for more heat anymore, unless the temperature falls below 10 degrees which is very unlikely.
Home heating oil is really cheap at the moment, I had an online quote this evening for 1000 litres at 29.6p per litre!


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## Ridgeway (2 Apr 2020)

If the mains water supply has been turned off then you'll get no hot water as there's nothing to fill the hot water tank and force the hot water around the system.

Personally i'd leave a system like that "as is" for now until you are in and can get your head around it. There will be a tap on the oil supply, usually one on each device, so your Aga and your boiler plus likely there's one on the outlet of the oil tank. 

It sounds like a potentially old house and unconventional heating system (like nearly all we've installed and owned) any chance the rads you touched are in fact storage heaters ? but you say the boiler fired up when you were there... could be the previous owner has just turned it down, i would give him a call to understand the quirks of the system.

I trust you have an electric or gas oven in the kitchen for summer


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## Mo1959 (3 Apr 2020)

Proto said:


> There
> 
> 
> There's an electric hob next to the AGA, so we won't go hungry. Suspect the AGA will go smartish. It's old (1970?) and not particularly pretty.
> ...


That’s gorgeous! Happy new home.


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## Proto (3 Apr 2020)

Right, think I’m sorted. Isolated the boiler electrically. Made sure the immersion heater was switched off. Turned off the oil supply feed at the tank. Checked that mains water off, and no leaks. Much happier now.


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## Ridgeway (3 Apr 2020)

Proto said:


> Right, think I’m sorted. Isolated the boiler electrically. Made sure the immersion heater was switched off. Turned off the oil supply feed at the tank. Checked that mains water off, and no leaks. Much happier now.



Good news

Glad you found the oil feed tap, they can be a bugger to find and as you mentioned often hidden by over grown plants.

For your 70's Aga, they are notoriously inefficient and will eat through oil, but at least you can switch it off for the Summer. Our Rayburn is still on but that runs on wood and we have several years worth stacked in the forest


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