{"id":1986,"date":"2023-11-20T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aprofessionalheatingandair.com\/blog\/?p=1986"},"modified":"2023-11-20T10:32:40","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T15:32:40","slug":"what-is-a-standing-pilot-and-why-does-it-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aprofessionalheatingandair.com\/blog\/what-is-a-standing-pilot-and-why-does-it-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is a Standing Pilot and Why Does it Matter?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"rustic-old-outdated-furnace\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

This is a tricky subject for many readers. While we believe it\u2019s important that everyone knows exactly what a standing pilot<\/a> light is, newer furnaces are simply built without them. Now, if you\u2019re asking, \u201cHow does a furnace work without a pilot light?\u201d then you\u2019re starting to ask the right questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to help our customers the most, we\u2019ll need to do a deep dive into pilot lights. We\u2019ll discuss what they are, why they work the way they do\u2013and most importantly, why they\u2019ve been phased out since the early 2000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just remember that even if your furnace doesn\u2019t have a standing pilot light, it still shouldn\u2019t be fixed or opened up by an untrained person. Only a licensed furnace professional should handle the inner workings of a gas furnace, otherwise, you could experience safety concerns or fire hazards!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

What Exactly Is a Standing Pilot Light?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Back in the day, in order for a gas furnace to turn on automatically, it needed to ignite. This can be a relatively difficult task without flint, or some kind of spark being created at a moment\u2019s notice. Some very old furnaces literally require manual ignition in order to start working properly, which is why they can sometimes require multiple people to operate appropriately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The standing pilot light was a solution to this problem. It allowed your furnace to ignite on its own due to a small light (the size of a tiny candle) staying lit indefinitely. This tiny light would ignite the burners when your furnace received a signal from the thermostat, and you\u2019d get powerful heating all automatically!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electric Ignition Systems<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, around 2010, furnaces with pilot lights started getting outsold by units with electric ignition systems. This meant an electric spark caused the pilot light to come on only when there was a demand for heat. Otherwise, the system was shut down completely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Safety, Convenience, and Efficiency<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For obvious reasons, electric ignition systems became the new most common type of ignition in gas furnaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n