Can this be right? Gas pilot light costing me £90.03 p.a.?

Ben84

The pilot flame may be bigger than you suspect. My boiler has quite a large flame, I can hear it when I'm sat in the living room and it looks quite big through the viewing port under the gas fire. The gas meter is always moving when I look at it.

Maybe the trouble however is not the gas consumed but how we look at it. You can look at it as wasted gas, or just a running cost for the boiler to work properly. My boiler needs a pilot light to work and because of this ability to light itself from a smaller flame it basically does everything for me. This is a huge plus to having a gas boiler, it's totally automatic in every need. Gas is piped to my house from the north sea, I don't have to take delivery of or store anything and since I moved to this house I've not had to shovel any coal or light a fire. The pilot flame is a small cost to pay for this convenience. If you weren't paying for the pilot flame you'd be wasting time with dirty solid fuel and ashes, as well as spending money on sweeping the chimney every year.

People seem to dislike their boiler's pilot flame, but weighing up the benefits I'm happy with my gas boiler and the cost of this permanent flame that it needs to light itself so that it can be totally automatic.

gordikin

....just turn the gas off at the meter!