Stephen coughed up some electrons that declared:

On Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:03:41 +0100, "Toby"
wrote:

Just turn the mains water to the property off, and then run a tap that is
fed from the tank, like the bath cold tap

Thanks. I was so focused on it being the hot water tap from the hot
water tank, I completely forgot that the bath cold tap came from the
tank (hopefully). Thanks again.

If you're doing both taps, then run the hot after draining the cold tap - if
the hot tap is below the top of the HW cylinder, there might be more to
drain, after the cold tap has gone dry.

But I agree, draining cold first is *potentially* less wasteful.

It stands to reason that if all you're doing is changing the taps, or moving
then to a position of similar height, then once the old taps have run dry,
removing them should produce very little water - a few thick towells around
or underneath should cope with any residual. It certainly shouldn't be
gushing out. Assuming the stopcock turns off fully! Worth seeing if you
have a key for the road cock handy just in case of issues with the house
cock. Hopefully at least one of them should work properly.

Great time to stick some ballvalves in if desired, to make future tap washer
maintenance easier

Good luck

Tim