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Last night I had to set my alarm every 90 minutes to wake up and dump out the bucket of water that my releif valve is draining to. It was kinda like Lost, except I wasn't on an island. And I didn't actually have to put a code in a computer. And it's cold. There's probably some other things it wasn't as well, but I think you get the point.

So? What's going on with the heat you ask!

Well, I've had the boiler on since last nite around 6pm. It's not fixed though, not by any stretch of the imagination. For one thing it's still leaking a gallon of water an hour. For another, and this is probably the most important thing, the house is still cold. Really cold, actually. Since it's been on the temperature in the house has gone from 53 to 60 degrees. This is nice, but I think it's actually colder than that upstairs because the radiators up there are still ice cold. Which makes me think the circulation pump is busted something bad, but I'm not a service tech so that's just a silly guess.

I did get a reply on the heating forum I posted on yesterday:

I'll try to start at the beginning......

you must have a tight system, so replace the water that is being lost and correct the leak. I believe that the pressure relief has failed since it has not stopped dripping. So you need a new one. Also, I really don't believe your pressure gauge is accurate anymore due to the extreme difference in pressures that you related. So, you need a new one. These two things will allow you to start to find out "What happened?". Since you have drained the expansion tank twice and it refilled and caused the relief to pop it's leaking and is bad. So you need a new one. This may be the cause of all of the trouble. Replace it with a diaphram type tank. Then begin with filling the system to 12# cold, vent the upper floor radiators and start up the boiler. Check for water flow from the pump by noting any temperature rise thru the boiler and system. The pressure should raise to 18-22 # at 190 and you may still have to bleed the areas that don't warm up, making sure to maintain water pressure at the correct coresponding temperature. If the pump is not working the temp will rise in the boiler rapidly but the aquastat should trip it out before the relief valve will open. If not, you will need a new one. I'm at a loss to explain why you would have full city water pressure on the system before, but it must be regulated down or turned off and filled manualy. I found one like this last month the gauge was spun around, the safety did not work and the old hydralic gas valve was stuck and the house was at 90 degrees! I told them..... you guessed it.... you need a new one! I hope this helps. You don't need a complete new one but you need some good maintenance, bad.Best Regards

I really don't understand a lot of the the things he said, but the gist of it is that I'm screwed I think. Not totally screwed though, just mostly screwed. So kewl!

I'm going to change the releif valve this morning because I'm pretty sure it needs to be done and if a guy comes out to fix the boiler he'll probably charge me $150 just to change that, in addition to whatever repairs need to be done, and I think I saw them at Home Depot for 30 bucks or so. He also wants me to replace the pressure gauge, but I don't know where to get one of those yet. I'll have to check with my friend Internet, he knows where to get everything.

The good news is that my bedroom is heated to a nice toasty 80 degrees or so, some yay! for me!