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How to ajust a pilot light on a gas furnace?
QUESTION:How to ajust a pilot light on a gas furnace?
ANSWER: What kind of problem are you having? Furnace pilot lights are not ordinarily adjustable.
Many of the problems with older furnaces can be taken care of by having an HVAC service tech come and do a cleaning -- burners, plenum, flue, and so forth. Any other maintenance can be spotted and done at the same time.
Often, what seems to be a problem with a pilot light, frequently having to relight it, is actually a problem with the thermocouple -- the device that senses whether the pilot is lit and does an emergency shutoff if it is not. They can age or break, but also can be replaced cheaply.
Watch out for economies that wind up costing money. This is a general warning. Refrigerators and freezers are made to run, ice makers are made to make ice. Burners that have pilot lights are constructed to depend on that pilot's flame and heat to help prevent corrosion and orifice blocking. Just turning any one of them off without doing storage maintenance can lead to expensive repairs or replacement. I've seen refrigerators thrown out because they were foul and would not cool properly after being shut down between rentals, commercial icemakers that had to have the whole freezing unit replaced because it had been shut off for a winter and the contact with the air caused corrosion that got into the ice the following summer, and boilers that rusted out prematurely. In the northern states, furnace humidifiers are notorious for failing due to lack of use and maintenance during the summer.
Replacement of an older furnace will save money -- in the long run. The typical small house cost of $800 to $3000 outlay for furnace alone can be saved back in lower bills over about ten years or less with the rising fuel prices. The very highest efficiency furnaces don't, though. With their cost and all the extra work that needs to be done for them to be safe, these may take ten years, twenty years, or more to recoup the investment. Before I forget, pulling the permit for any furnace replacement may result in your municipality insisting on an electrical service upgrade to meet current code.
Watch out for furnace scams, too. It's not unknown for a furnace company to claim "cracked plenum" or some other spurious malfunction in order to sell a furnace replacement. This is the same thing an honest furnace man might say and you don't have any way to evaluate it, so have it verified by someone without a financial interest in the answer; perhaps your gas company, or at least a furnace company that knows that you're not going to buy from them. If it really is putting out poisonous gases, don't dither. Replace it!
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