Winterisation of system

Hi,
I have a heating system with a Boilermate 2000 at its heart and a Glowworm boiler.
What would you recommend to do for an extended period away from the house in the winter months?
My ideas are as follows:-
1. Leave the heating on constant with the room stat at say 10 to 12 deg C
2. Isolate the cold incoming mains to reduce the damage if any pipes did freeze.
3. Drain down the DHW and CW systems.

I do have a concern with the fact that the boiler is in the garage and I am considering lagging around it.

On points 2 and 3 what would be the impact on the DHW pump and heat exchanger as if there is no water on the secondary side of the exchanger could this then be damaged if the pump started up?

Thanking you for any ideas.
Kind regards

The boiler may have a built in frost stat.
If not there should be one fitted.
I would turn the water off.
And leave the unit, boiler on.
Set the heating to constant and leave the stat about 10c.
OR.
If going away for a month or more.
Drain down the system complete including water from any pipes on the ground floor.
Drain the unit and boiler.
Turn off water run all taps.
Put anti freeze in all the sink, basin and bath wastes.
Washing machine, dish washer traps to.
Antifreeze in all toilet pans and cisterns.
And when you come back all has to be re instated.
Don't lag the boiler it may get too hot.
Mike
MGC/H2O
Norfolk.

Thanks for the prompt reply, Mike.
I think that I'll go for the initial answer even though we'll be away for 6 weeks. It will be very difficult to completely drain down all the pipework etc on the lower floor as there are no drain cocks fitted at the lowest points.

I was told by the builder that a frost stat was fitted to the boiler but I now know that not to be the case and with the boiler being quite a distance from the Boilermate, not an easy item to fit now.

Thanks once again.
Terry

Hi Terry

If you have a Glow-worm boiler fitted to the Boilermate 2000, it is likely to be one of the Glow-worm HXi range which have internal frost protection via their temperature sensors and control boiler. Certainly the piupework in the garage should be lagged.

As for the heating system, your initial suggesstion is the correct one to choose (leave the heating on constant and set room stat to 10deg C with cold water turned off at the mains and all taps left open). With regards to the hot water pump, this is situated in the primary water (not the water from your taps) and it will not be affected by having no water in the secondary side of the heat exchanger. However, there will be a small quirk. The unit will be looking for hot water in the heat exchanger to reach circa 40deg C before it turns off the hot water pump. As there will be no water in this side, it will have to rely on heat conduction through the metal in order to get to a temperature for the pump to turn off. It will also have a greater heat loss through the hot water heat exchanger resulting in slightly more gas usage to keep the unit topped up with temperature, but nothing to be concerned about.

Have a good holiday

Hi David,
thanks for the reply.
I believe that my boiler is a Glowworm Ultimate but badged as an IKON 60-80CI, if that makes sense?? The instruction manual makes no reference to frost protection. All the pipework in the garage is lagged and I did consider building a kind of lagged "cupboard" around the boiler?

When I turn off the cold mains is it really necessary to open the taps and in essence, draining down most of the cold and hot water systems? I carried out an experiment yesterday and drained down the cold and hot water systems and right enough the DHW circ pump did start up for a couple of minutes. I was just concerned that the heat exchanger could be damaged with a differential in pressure between the primary and secondary sides?
Thanks once again,
Terry