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BANG FOR THE BITE
Newer heaters don't have pilot lights, but if 10,000 Biters with older ones turn off their pilot light for six warm months, we'll save enough gas to run an oven for almost 2,000 years.
COCKTAIL FACT
Dalmatians were used centuries ago to herd livestock, so when fire engines were horse-drawn, they were trained to lead the horses to a safe waiting place until the fire was out.
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home › tip library › Turning Off Pilot Lights
Think you need a big, strong firefighter to put out your blaze?
The Bite
Nope - you can handle it just fine. Switching off the pilot light on your fireplace or furnace during warm summer months will save loads of natural gas, and it's so easy, a Dalmatian could do it.The Benefits
- Torching natural gas waste. Example: The pilot light on a gas fireplace can use 1/2 the total gas a gas fireplace burns in a year, and the process for extracting natural gas is resource-intensive (just like extracting oil).
- Saving up for that firefighter calendar. Depending on gas prices in your area, you can save about $50 on bills each year if you turn off a pilot light during warm months.
- It's almost as easy as dialing 911. Once you know where the valve is and how to turn it off, it'll take you just a couple min each year.
Personally Speaking
When she was growing up, Heather's dad (and Ideal Bite's #1 Fan) always had a phobia of stuff accidentally blowing up, so he was religious about turning off the pilot lights at their forest cabin.Wanna Try?
Check the manual to the appliance you wanna turn off for instructions. If you don't have it:
- Find the valve in the gas line.
- Turn the valve handle so it's angled 90 degrees to the pipe.
- Check the pilot light to see that it's out.
To turn it back on:
- Turn the valve parallel to the pipe.
- Relight your pilot light by pressing the light knob, and holding a match to the pilot nozzle.
- Natural Gas Appliance Calculator - helps calculate how much gas your pilot light uses.
May 05,2008
Sponsor
I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm a pyromaniac, but I do have a fairly intense fascination with fire. The Fourth of July was my favorite holiday even before I discovered the wonderful math of beer + barbecue = good times because I loooooved watching stuff blow up. On family camping trips, my relatives would have to force themselves out of bed long before they would have preferred because seven-year-old Mike would inevitably find the matches and set about trying to start up the campfire for breakfast.
But pilot lights? They are the enemy. I love fire, but I absolutely cannot stand the heat. Loathe it. I devolve into a whiny, sweaty ball of complaints when the temperature rises above 85 degrees. And there's always a tiny bit of heat emanating from that little flame hidden in the furnace. Slight though it may be, anything that raises the temperature more than 0.00001 degrees in the summer must be stopped, because then I'm just gonna run the A/C longer, burning up even more resources - and I'll have to buy more deodorant.
SF Editor Mike...off to tell his roommates that they can't use the oven until Nov. 1...
Biter Comments...
PHOTO ALBUMS
Posted by: jenA | May 05, 2008 at 08:38 AM