Do All Furnaces Have A Pilot Light

Hot surface igniters and intermittent pilots.

Do all furnaces have a pilot light. Up until recent history pilot lights were used in nearly every furnace to ignite the burners when a heating cycle begins. Depending on the of your furnace it s very possible your furnace does not have a pilot light in fact it may have an ignition system with a flame management sensor. It requires a pilot light to be lit 24 7. When the main burner extinguishes the pilot light continues burning.

A number of things can make an old furnace pilot light go out including a strong draft a faulty thermocouple or a loss of gas. Standing pilot is an older way of igniting a furnace. An older gas furnace has a standing pilot that stays on all the time or at least it s supposed to. Water heaters gas fireplaces and old gas stoves also often have similar pilot lights.

If you have an older gas furnace your heating unit relies on a little blue flame known as a pilot light to ensure ignition of the burners. The pilot uses a high voltage spark of electricity to ignite heat when the thermostat indicates that it s getting too cold. A modern gas furnace usually has an electronic spark generator to ignite the gas when the thermostat calls for heat. Get your heater s pilot light lit in less than 2 minutes.

When the thermostat signals the need for heat an electric system creates a spark that causes the pilot to come on and then the pilot. Newer gas furnaces since about 2010 do not have a traditional pilot light that burns all the time. Instead the pilot light only comes on when it needs to ignite the burner. Although today s standard electric furnace uses a hot surface ignition older models often use an intermittent pilot to ignite heat.

A pilot light is a small flame that burns continuously inside of your furnace whether it is running or not. Long neck bbq lighter https amzn to 2cm3c9h bright led flashlight https. For many years furnaces used a small and continuously burning flame known as a pilot light to ignite the burners during every heating cycle. If your furnace has a round knob on the gas valve with the words off on pilot you have what s known as a standing pilot ignition.

Although pilot lights are still present in homes with older systems most newly installed furnaces use an electronic ignition instead. The small burning flame from the pilot light lights the main burners. Intermittent pilots still use a pilot light however it isn t a standing pilot light that remains on all the time to ignite the burner whenever the gas turns on. If you can t get the pilot in your electric furnace to light it s usually a simple matter to turn it back on.

There are two basic types of electronic igniters in modern furnaces. Sometimes it is referred to as a safety pilot.