Does this seem like reasonable gas usage for a pilot light?

thef0rce

Hi,

I worked out that my boiler pilot light uses about half a unit a day, which I think works out to about 6kwh. The boiler is quite old and probably not terribly efficient. But does this figure seem too high? I'm living in a rental property so I can't change the boiler but I was curious if the flame is turned up too high and using a lot of gas.

Thanks for reading

Robert2009

Mine use that. I have 2 pilot lights one for heating and one for hot water. Heating uses 6 kWh and hot water 3 kWh a day.

thef0rce

My boiler seems to have two pilot lights as well. If I turn the controls at the front I can affect the intensity of one of them but the other burns quite high and I can't turn it down. Not sure if it's supposed to be like that. It's confusing

Cardew

That is quite typical usage - several threads on this subject.

The gas is not actually 'lost' as the heat from the flame does warm the fabric of the house.

If you turn down the pilot flame too low then the gas will cut off. The tip of a thermocouple is in the flame and this provides an electrical signal to hold open the gas valve. If the pilot light blew out or the pilot light is too low, gas is shut off as a safety measure.

cing0

I worked out it was 0.6 cubic meters per day for my boiler some time ago so turn the boiler off in summer, which is the same based on about 11kwh per m3 of gas.

babyboomer49

I read my gas and electricity meter every day and enter them in an Excel spreadsheet. (A graph drawn from the consumption tracks the weather/temperature quite accurately).

Anyway, when on holiday in May and July, the pilot light on my 35 year old boiler used .26 cu mtr per day.

Of more concern than the pilot light, with more or less everything switched off during holidays, I still use about 4 KW electricity per day - probably due to the freezer and separate fridge freezer.