Do Furnaces Have A Pilot Light

Gas furnaces now come with an igniter that works electronically to light the gas and heat the home.

Do furnaces have a pilot light. A small heat sensing device known as a thermocouple makes sure gas flow is delivered to the main furnace burners only when it is warmed by the pilot light. The pilot light in a furnace that ignites the burners is so much a part of our collective understanding of how gas furnaces work that some homeowners find themselves surprised when they discover their new furnace doesn t need a pilot light. Many electronic igniters and hot surface igniters come on automatically and if the furnace isn t working it s usually an electrical problem. For many years furnaces used a small and continuously burning flame known as a pilot light to ignite the burners during every heating cycle.

Now it is more common to light a burner electrically but gas pilot lights are still used when a high energy ignition source is necessary as in when lighting a large burner. A pilot light is a small gas flame usually natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas which serves as an ignition source for a more powerful gas burner originally a pilot light was kept permanently alight but this wastes gas. If your furnace has a small round knob on the gas valve with the words off on pilot you have a standing pilot ignition. Although pilot lights are still present in homes with older systems most newly installed furnaces use an electronic ignition instead.

This is relatively simple technology though not very fuel efficient. In essence the pilot is responsible for combusting your fuel source. 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. 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.

Modern furnaces tend to have an electronic igniter or a hot surface igniter and the pilot compartment is sealed so you couldn t light the pilot with a match even if you wanted to. Water heaters gas fireplaces and old gas stoves also often have similar pilot lights. In an older system this worked and still works for many of us by the heating system pushing fuel into the combustion chamber where it waits to be ignited which is the. Today we re going to talk about the difference between conventional pilot lights and electronic ignitions and why.