The number I remember was $9/month savings when I turned off the pilot in summer. But I don't have records back that far to verify. I bought an electric spark igniter at a garage sale, but didn't know what I was doing and feared burning down the house. Never installed it.
New furnace has an electric igniter.
I'm confused why my gas burner has BOTH the pilot light and the piezo-electric starter.
The piezo-electric snapper simply starts the pilot light.
So why do I need the pilot light if I have the snapper?
The pilot light heats a thermocouple which produces electric current to operate the gas valve. If the pilot goes out, the gas valve will not operate. Some pilots also operate as an oxygen sensor, when O2 levels drop, the pilot flame shrinks and no longer heats the thermocouple thus the gas valve closes. My wall mounted unventilated gas heater has a piezoelectric igniter for the oxygen sensing pilot light. The pilot must heat the thermocouple enough to produce electric current before the gas valve can be turned on. If the pilot goes out, the gas to the burners shuts off regardless of the position of the control. ^_^
Not a proper scientific test though - he did not tourn off all the pilots and do another timed meter reading. Maybe he has a leak somewhere ventilated and not noticeable and is pissig gas everywhere? ;->
Oh - and whilst the UK uses kWh too, it's not the SI unit for energy.
Good memories though, of when the UK uses to have cuFt gas meters and bill by the therm (the wholesale market still does).
I had not thought of that! :)
Ah. That must be why the pilot light kept going out in the beginning, when I let up on the pressing of the knob.
Then, after a few minutes with the butane lighter, the pilot light stayed lit after I let up on pressing the knob.
The thermocouple must've heated up by then!
You got it! In the case of oxygen sensing pilot lights, the flame shoots out at more of an angle to heat the thermocouple. When oxygen levels drop too low, the flame bends away from the thermocouple and can no longer heat it, the thermocouple cools and the gas shuts off. ^_^
TDD
The Daring Dufas wrote in news:kbgf95$5jn$1@dont- email.me:
What a shocking story.
Jim wrote in news:kbgjr8$6a6$ snipped-for-privacy@news.albasani.net:
Pfui. The pilot does NOT produce anywhere nearly enough carbon monoxide to present any kind of problem. There is NO need to vent a pilot light.
Precisely...
I posted not long ago about a small heater in the well house here...it is a _very_ old heater (re-purposed WW II vintage bathroom heater from house pre-central heat installation) and had a "wild" pilot that was common (essentially universal) in those days. In those the pilot was simply a small bypass line but there was no TC and no safety valve; if the pilot went out it just went out and if (no, when) the temperature dropped and demand signal came, the valve would open. If untended, Indianapolis could be the result.
From that, it's clear why the new way is better. Last spring I replaced the pilot assembly and control valve on this heater w/ a new pilot assembly w/ the TC adaptor and one of them new-fangled control valves...it has proved beneficial once this winter already as the pilot blew out on a very windy day once already.
It did, however, go for 40-some years out there (the well house was built around the "new" well in the late 50s/early 60s) though...
It appears that your pump house heater would be a good candidate for an automatic pilot light reigniter. ^_^
TDD
On 12/27/2012 9:54 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote: ...
It has one... :)
And it needs activation to check at the moment...
Is it one of these? ^_^
...
Cute. Hadn't seen one of them before, actually...if it were more inaccessible location wouldn't be a bad idea.
The one that _is_ installed just came back from checking and all was well... :)
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I've installed the non-walking/talking units on various gas burning equipment that had a problem with errant drafts blowing the pilot out. There are even 12vdc automatic reigniters for RV equipment. ^_^
TDD
...
...
Out of curiosity, what triggers their action--they have to be quick enough the TC doesn't go cold, obviously, and the valve closes automagically.
If you see the white ceramic insulated probe/electrode in the picture, not only does it produce a spark to ground but it acts as a flame sense probe for the electronics in the unit which detects the electrical conductivity of the pilot flame. Some devices have a separate sensor probe but the Robertshaw unit utilizes a single electrode. ^_^
TDD
t gases to leave
n all the time, especially
er in a fireplace *not*
amper somewhere.
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, and if =A0you can
p them all open if the
You asked: "Guess where the smoke and flames went?"
Here's my story:
A friend of mine moved into a renovated farmhouse. Most of the first floor was a huge living room/dining room combination. In the living room area they had a large fireplace. In the dining room area they had a coal buring stove. They moved in during the fall and the coal buring stove had been doing a great job of heating the downstairs, although thay had to feed it 3 times a day to keep it going.
We went over their house for their first Christmas party, which was also the first time they built a roaring blaze in the open fireplace. As we were sitting watching the fire, we noticed it getting colder and colder in the house. My friend went over to the coal stove and noticed that the temperature had dropped dramatically.
In an effort to see what was going on, he open the door to the stove. Guess where the massive amount of coal dust went?
As it turned out, the fireplace was drawing air down the coal stove flue and putting out the coal. When he opened the door to the coal stove, the draft blew the dust all over him, all over the dining room area and half way out into the living room. 3 or 4 people were basically covered with soot. My friend looked like an old time actor wearing blackface. It's a good thing he was wearing glasses, although when he took them off he looked even funnier.
DerbyDad03 wrote in news:5f81a820-808f-4f60-b972- snipped-for-privacy@z2g2000vbx.googlegroups.com:
Damn good thing the fire in the coal stove was out before that coal dust got dispersed -- otherwise there could (would?) have been a massive explosion.
On 12/27/2012 4:15 PM, Doug Miller wrote: ...
dispersed --
It wouldn't have been unburnt pulverized coal but ash/soot...
But the likelihood of a coal dust explosion in an unconstrained volume such as that even w/ pulverized coal would be near zero. Like other situations (grain dust, wood chips, etc.) there's a fairly narrow range that will allow such to happen. (Spent many years working w/ pulverized coal in power plants developing online instrumentation systems to measure the mass flow rate of PC in individual burner pipes from the pulverizer outlets to aid in balancing and thereby lower NOx and raise efficiency).
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