"Peter Smithson" wrote in message
...
I've just moved into a house about 3 weeks ago and the central heating
does not work. I've not owned a house before so I'm a real novice.

It has a gas boiler that heats the hot water and is supposed to heat the
radiators too. I've had a look on the web and I think my hot water is
working as it has some very large pipes which are probably working by
convection/gravity to do the hot water. I think it's probably the
original boiler and therefore made around 1984. It's a glowworm (I
think that's right).

Seems to me there are a few possible causes

1) Water pump isn't working. Yet it has a voltage going into it and
I'd expect to feel some heat in the radiator pipes coming out of the
boiler just by convection but they are stone cold. On the other hand,
it doesn't make any sound at all - I'd have thought you'd hear
something.

2) There's no water in the sytem at all - not likley I would have
thought. I'm going to try bleeding a radiator tonight to confirm.

3) Some problem in the boiler. Is there a way it could be providing hot
water but no heat at all to the CH circuit?

An engineer is coming round on Wednesday to check the boiler anyway but
it'd be nice to have some heating before then!

Cheers

Peter
--
http://www.beluga.freeserve.co.uk

As others have said, it's most likely a duff pump.

But also check:
* the programmer - should be set to Heating On
* the room stat - should be set to a high enough temperature
* radiator valves - some fool may have turned them all off for the summer!

It's unlikely that there's no water in the system - otherwise the hot water
wouldn't work. But check the small header/expansion tank anyway, and check
that it's ball-valve works properly. [It should only have a couple of inches
of water in the bottom when the system is cold - but the outlet in the
bottom of the tank *must* be covered - otherwise air will be drawn into the
system].

HTH,
Roger