No Fuel, No boiler no heat!

With Chay away in foreign parts on holiday all mantenance out of hours reverts to me, or to me on the first instance until I can locate someone competant. So yesterday when there was no hot water it was boiler expert- Beppo- to the fore. I immediately realised that the fault was in the boilers- my training deduced that as long as there was water comming out of the taps it was a heating issue. I quickly dismantled the burners and eventually deduced that the lack of fuel was not a blockage in the nozzle (a term in had heard Chay use) but more simply a lack of fuel entering the system.

So it was over to the tank and cursing Chay for leaving me with no fuel despite promises to the contrary until when I arrived at the store it was clear that there was plenty of fuel. Then I noticed a tap at the bottom of the tank and to my surprise it was switched off. I quickly apologised for ranting at Chay and reverted my rant to whoever had tampererd with the tap and turned it on and to my delight I heard the fuel flow and the air bubble through the system.

Then sheer panic as I realised the oil was rushing to the boiler house but that I had not yet reconnected the fuel hose so a sprint to the boiler house and before I could avert disaster the fuel was flowing so I grabbed the nearest recerpticle- a welly boot- and let it flow well at at least the air was now out of the sytem- so amid a stramash of flowing fuel, wellington boots filling with fuel and tools I managed to reconnect the system and although I now had a couple of pairs of full boots I had no spilt fuel. I then retested the igniter and to my relief the boilers fired.

At this point Eric who I had panicked and called arrived to the scene of devastation, it must have looked like a scene common to many parents- a child who had been left alone for too long- me sitting on the floor surrounded by devastation with piles of tools, boiler parts, boots and fuel and with a grin from ear to ear- without help I had managed not only to fix the boiler and get hot water flowing but cause complete chaos- no wonder I am only left in charge for 3 weeeks !!