pilot lights

[John Allen]

I just turned off he last of the 5 pilot lights we used to have burning in our home. This one was for the Gas oven in the kitchen. It was using .25 cubic feet of gas every hour. This is only 6 cubic feet per hour and 180 cu ft per month which is about $2. BUT today is a scorcher and I figure it is worth it to stop all that heat, 6000 BTUs, from going into our home every day in the summertime. I will light it anytime someone wants to use the oven, like for baking cookies and I plan to leave it on once the hot weather is gone.

Now our only gas usage is for cooking, we can get a good metric on that. I estimate it is only $3 per month. I estimate that each pilot is $2, so in the past we have wasted $8-10 per month on pilot lights. (The fifth pilot light was in the space heater part of the Wedgewood stove. That is about the same as we used to heat hot water before our solar thermal system took over that task.

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John A Allen