Propane pilot lights

[Tainterslayer]

I've been doing some searching on google but can't find a scientific answer to a question I have... I bought a 10,000 btu propane wall heater and it has a pilot light feature. How much gas does it use??? I'm concerned because I left my heater for about a week and it literally took me 5 minutes to get it started. I really don't want to stand out in below zero weather clicking a button!! The only cure is to hold the gas dial down, aparrantly that purges more fuel into the unit or something. Whatever the case, do you guys know how many BTUs a pilot light would put out??
I keep seeing "1000 btu/hour" and numbers like that which I think is complete BS.

[ice dawg]

Isn't the correct procedure to set the gas dial to the PILOT position, push down on the dial and push the ignitor until the pilot lights?? On mine I have to hold the knob down until my thermocouple gets warm enough to keep going. Maybe you have a different setup. 

[Melbs7]

Isn't the correct procedure to set the gas dial to the PILOT position, push down on the dial and push the ignitor until the pilot lights?? On mine I have to hold the knob down until my thermocouple gets warm enough to keep going. Maybe you have a different setup. 

Ice Dawg, you are 100% correct. When you hold hown the knob when it is in the "pilot" position, you are manually opening the gas valve. Once you get enough gas, you are able to light it. Now you have to CONTINUE to hold down the knob, this continues to hold the gas valve open maually until the pilot flame heats up the thermo pile enough to produce enough milliamps to automatically hold open the gas valve. This should take about 20 - 30 seconds. The thermo pile is a safety feature that senses the pilot light and if it doesn't sense the pilot light anymore, it kills the main gas valve. It works on the principle of 2 dissimilar metals, when they are touching and heated, produce a milliamp current (one milliamp = 1/1000th of an amp) in order to hold open the main gas valve. When the thermopile is hot, and there is no longer a pilot light on it, by code it is supposed to kill the main gas valve within 90 seconds.

To make a long story short.... when it is done right.... it should light off pretty easily and quickly. And I would see no need to leave the pilot light on. If it DOESNT light off quickly and easily, I would say that something is either wrong with your gas valve or thermo pile.... either way... I would fix it immediately. JMHO Good Luck!!

Dave

[Melbs7]

Tainter... I did some reaserch of my own, and every pilot light will be different of course... so I found a range of BTUs that I calculated out. I am sure on the unit that you're using... it would be towards the smaller end of the scale... but here is what I found. A pilot light will consume anywhere from 708 BTUs/hour all the way up to 1,667 BTUs/hour. for propane, depending on the price you pay of course..... but figured at $2 / gallon that would equate out to the range of $11.00 to $26.00 per month.... hope this helps!!

Dave

[ice dawg]

I have a 15,000 BTU direct vent heater and when I haven't used it for a couple of weeks and haven't had my tank hooked up it takes a while to light the pilot. I believe it is because I have a 15 foot hose going outside to my propane tank and it takes a while to purge it. I usually leave a tank hooked up to it in my driveway and light it up for a while before I head to the lake to make sure it will light quickly. It does get to be a pain to hold the gas control knob down for a long time on the ice.

[Melbs7]

Yeah... if you have a long hose like that it can take a while. I guess in tainter's story I was picturing (possible wrongly picturing) a short hose and piping set-up.

[SkeeterJeff]

Holding the gas dial down while lighting it is standard for every heater that I've seen.  As was said in another reply, you will need to keep the valve held down for 15-30 seconds after the pilot lights to get the thermocouple warm enough to automatically keep the gas valve open.

Is this a new heater to you? 

-Jeff

[Tainterslayer]

It's a pretty short hose, but yeah I think I am exaggerating a little bit about how long it took. However it just took a lot longer than I wanted to  . Holding down the dial in the pilot position is the right procedure. Maybe I just screwed up something when I went to light it last weekend. Either way it's looking a lot like running the pilot light all the time is definitely not worth it. I was hoping it would be only something like 15 BTU.

Thanks guys.

[ice dawg]

I have let the pilot light run in my shanty for weeks at a time in case I wanted to do something in it and didn't want to mess around lighting it. It burns very little propane.

[Nor Easter]

Just think about who still uses gas appliances such as an old propane kitchen stove in a camp. The pilot is lit 24/7 for the season. It uses minimal fuel and may be adjustable for height of flame.

 I don`t see a problem leaving it on but I also don`t see the need either.