Pilot light gas usage - Page 2

redneck · 01-20-15, 12:05 PM

.

Bumping the thread.

http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/...ghts-are-evil/

>

ecomodded · 01-20-15, 12:56 PM

I suggest ditching your natural gas all together instead buy a 500lb propane tank or what ever you find cheap / used and have it filled when required. No minimum charge if you own your tank ,if you rent a tank they REQUIRE you to use a minimum amount of Gas ( just like the Natural gas Companies ) or they haul your tank off and put it somewhere where the people are more wasteful.

Which should be illegal , forcing People to Burn up gas so the Company can rape your pockets. This happened to my Mom and her Husband ( the douche bag) as they refused to use a pilot light. They were forced to buy a tank so they bought 2 100lb tanks which lasts a year and cost just $70 each.

Mikesolar · 01-20-15, 04:49 PM

I haven't installed an appliance with a pilot for 15 years and never will again. Each pilot is about 2000btu if memory serves.

wuck · 01-21-15, 12:08 AM

As we leave our home regularly for 1 to 2 weeks at a time, I've been able to experiment with/measure our pilot lights.

The water heater, a 3-year old GE/Rheem Low-NOx NG 38 gallon uses about 0.1 therm/day. I usually leave just the pilot on when we leave. Occasionally my wife will return home before I do, it's pretty easy for her to turn the control to on, but a different matter if she had to light the pilot.

Our furnace is an old double-sided wall model, the pilot light looks and sounds like a double blow torch (at least to my cash-sensitive ears!). It consumes somewhere around 0.4 therms/day. I usually heat with wood, but for the last few years there is now another element to winter here - Spare The Air. The air quality management district makes the call daily, if particulate matter pollution is forecast too high wood fires are prohibited the following day.

For the first time this "winter" I had to light my double-blowtorch pilot a few weeks ago as we had a record run of 11-12 consecutive spare-the-air alerts. It'll stay lit for the next few weeks as STA alerts are probably going to continue.

Pat

AC_Hacker · 01-21-15, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wuck

...NG 38 gallon uses about 0.1 therm/day. ...consumes somewhere around 0.4 therms/day...

So your pilots are consuming 1/2 of a therm (1 therm = 100,000 BTU) per day!

So, the pilots are eating 50,000 BTU/day.

There are some very high performance houses that can be heated by that amount of heat.

I have a spark-ignited NG demand water heater (old style, only 83% efficient).

I compared my gas bill with that of a friend with an NG pilot light tank heater, that he only used in the winter for standby heating if his GSHP was not able to meet the heat demand. He didn't use his gas DWH in the summer, just let it sit. He had an electric DWH for normal use. My monthly gas use was actually less (washing dishes, bathing, etc.) than his (standing loss + pilot) gas use.

-AC

ecomodded · 01-21-15, 09:17 PM

I can't help but notice that stupid edit warning / alert under the posts , one of them 2 minutes after the post the other 3 minutes .. like whats the POINT ?
(its my Pet peeve )

gtojohn · 01-22-15, 02:37 AM

Interesting thread. I was wondering before why there aren't electric pilots for tanked dhw. The answer is cost and reliability. The benefit of electric pilot is you could program set backs.
I know this is just stating the obvious but if you would like to try pilot only heating of your water during the warmer months you could turn its thermostat to pilot or just the coldest setting your wife will tolerate. If its located in your attic there should be plenty of heat gain depending what time of day you bathe. During the hotter part of the summer my cold water supply comes out of the ground at 80F.
The average smallest gas hvac furnace burns 50kbtu hr with 40kbtu hr output. If you have a standing pilot furnace, with the pilot on during the cooling season you are losing 4 tons of cooling per day!

01-20-15, 12:56 PM	#12
ecomodded Supreme EcoRenovator Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: Vancouver Island,Canada. Posts: 1,037 Thanks: 116 Thanked 100 Times in 87 Posts	I suggest ditching your natural gas all together instead buy a 500lb propane tank or what ever you find cheap / used and have it filled when required. No minimum charge if you own your tank ,if you rent a tank they REQUIRE you to use a minimum amount of Gas ( just like the Natural gas Companies ) or they haul your tank off and put it somewhere where the people are more wasteful. Which should be illegal , forcing People to Burn up gas so the Company can rape your pockets. This happened to my Mom and her Husband ( the douche bag) as they refused to use a pilot light. They were forced to buy a tank so they bought 2 100lb tanks which lasts a year and cost just $70 each. Last edited by ecomodded; 01-20-15 at 12:58 PM..

01-20-15, 12:05 PM	#11
redneck Helper EcoRenovator Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: US Posts: 57 Thanks: 1 Thanked 17 Times in 11 Posts	. Bumping the thread. http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/...ghts-are-evil/ >

01-20-15, 04:49 PM	#13
Mikesolar Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: Toronto Posts: 958 Thanks: 40 Thanked 158 Times in 150 Posts	I haven't installed an appliance with a pilot for 15 years and never will again. Each pilot is about 2000btu if memory serves.

01-21-15, 12:08 AM	#14
wuck Helper EcoRenovator Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: Sonoma County NorCal Posts: 32 Thanks: 6 Thanked 5 Times in 5 Posts	As we leave our home regularly for 1 to 2 weeks at a time, I've been able to experiment with/measure our pilot lights. The water heater, a 3-year old GE/Rheem Low-NOx NG 38 gallon uses about 0.1 therm/day. I usually leave just the pilot on when we leave. Occasionally my wife will return home before I do, it's pretty easy for her to turn the control to on, but a different matter if she had to light the pilot. Our furnace is an old double-sided wall model, the pilot light looks and sounds like a double blow torch (at least to my cash-sensitive ears!). It consumes somewhere around 0.4 therms/day. I usually heat with wood, but for the last few years there is now another element to winter here - Spare The Air. The air quality management district makes the call daily, if particulate matter pollution is forecast too high wood fires are prohibited the following day. For the first time this "winter" I had to light my double-blowtorch pilot a few weeks ago as we had a record run of 11-12 consecutive spare-the-air alerts. It'll stay lit for the next few weeks as STA alerts are probably going to continue. Pat

01-21-15, 09:17 PM	#16
ecomodded Supreme EcoRenovator Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: Vancouver Island,Canada. Posts: 1,037 Thanks: 116 Thanked 100 Times in 87 Posts	I can't help but notice that stupid edit warning / alert under the posts , one of them 2 minutes after the post the other 3 minutes .. like whats the POINT ? (its my Pet peeve )

01-22-15, 02:37 AM	#17
gtojohn Journeyman EcoRenovator Join Date: Jul 2014 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 314 Thanks: 39 Thanked 50 Times in 45 Posts	Interesting thread. I was wondering before why there aren't electric pilots for tanked dhw. The answer is cost and reliability. The benefit of electric pilot is you could program set backs. I know this is just stating the obvious but if you would like to try pilot only heating of your water during the warmer months you could turn its thermostat to pilot or just the coldest setting your wife will tolerate. If its located in your attic there should be plenty of heat gain depending what time of day you bathe. During the hotter part of the summer my cold water supply comes out of the ground at 80F. The average smallest gas hvac furnace burns 50kbtu hr with 40kbtu hr output. If you have a standing pilot furnace, with the pilot on during the cooling season you are losing 4 tons of cooling per day!