Pilot On/Off

[Biggerfish]

I have two Empire wall heaters at the cabin. For the past several years I would turn them off completely (pilot and all). I would restart when I needed them. Reason was during the winter I would not get up there for 4-6 weeks at a time.

I have been told I should leave the pilots going. I thought I could save some money on gas by completely shutting the off?

Would you leave them running all winter? How much gas do you think I save by shutting them down?

Also I was told completely shutting them down is bad for them? Is this true?

Thanks for any feedback

[Hoey]

The installer of my Empire recommended leaving it on all the time. Rationale? Maybe to keep spiders from entering, maybe to keep the gas flow fresh, IDK. I do not know how much fuel the pilot consumes, but it certainly is not much.

[Eric Wettschreck]

Leave the pilots lit. This keeps the pilot orifice cleaner.

You're not going to save very much money by turning off the pilot. Heck, I'm guessing a pilot orifice assembly costs more than what you'd save in gas.

[Biggerfish]

Thanks for the feedback.

I quess i'm going to have to tell the wife I need to go to the cabin this weekend to turn on the pilots..

[Pinusbanksiana]

I shut off pilots all the time. If your worried about the orifice getting clogged, shove a q tip in it. I don't and never worried about it.

[Biggerfish]

I did do a little research on the cost..Pilot gas cost that is.

A wall heater pilot gas cost is about $1.00 for 5 days.

A furnace pilot gas cost is about $1.00 for 3 days.

Now this is what I found on the internet...We all know we can believe everything we find on the internet.

Thanks

[delcecchi]

I went back and looked at the gas bill that came on 8/9/12, representing a period when were were not at home. I have two things with standing pilots, and my gas usage was 10 therms or 10 ccf.

The net cost, minus "customer charge" was $7.39. The bill covered 27 days so that is 27.3 cents per day or 13.6 cents per day per pilot.

One pilot is the water heater and the other is a gas fireplace.

That is for natural gas. Propane is more expensive.