Balanced flue gas fires "ignition"

robotrobo

Hi.
I am going to replace my electric fire for a b/flue gas fire!, my question is , am i better not fitting a fire with a pilot light continually burning? , if so , is there a balanced flue fire on the market with the pieza ignition system .
The reason i do not really want the pilot light , is that the fire is only secondary heating in the house.
Am i right in thinking that the pilot light is only on the fire if you buy the sliding control or the automatic hand control ?.
thankyou

Alex1983

I don't think any gas fire has a permanent pilot. Most have piezo ignition. Remote control and slide control pilots light when you turn the fire on.

littlerock

I had a boiler with a permanent gas light and open port, to it, it caused terrible condensation in the winter.

southcoastrgi

littlerock wrote: »

I had a boiler with a permanent gas light and open port, to it, it caused terrible condensation in the winter.

A gas fire front & back boiler would have had a perm pilot but the op is just talking about a fire which won't plus gas back boilers aren't available anymore

djp64

I've just had a Gazco balanced flue gas fire installed and it has a pilot light that is on permanently (although there is the option to turn it off). It is a remote control one so assume the pilot light is needed otherwise the remote is pointless.
There was nothing in the product information when it was bought to indicate this was the case and the pilot light generates quite a bit of heat even when the fire isn't on (a simple test of meter usage indicates about £6 of gas a month on standby)
The fire isn't a primary source of heating so it will be turned off in the warmer months to reduce the gas consumption from the pilot light.
The fire itself is great though - costs about 8p an hour to run and it warms up the living room very quickly.

Alex1983

With out seeing your remote or fire I can't say for sure but the majority of fires with remote controls light the pilot by pressing and holding 1 or 2 buttons on the remote. You will not need to leave your pilot on permanently, you can light it when you need to use the fire.
Most gas fires light a pilot before the main flame as the pilot holds the important safety devices.

mrshedges

djp64 wrote: »

I've just had a Gazco balanced flue gas fire installed and it has a pilot light that is on permanently (although there is the option to turn it off). It is a remote control one so assume the pilot light is needed otherwise the remote is pointless.
There was nothing in the product information when it was bought to indicate this was the case and the pilot light generates quite a bit of heat even when the fire isn't on (a simple test of meter usage indicates about £6 of gas a month on standby)
The fire isn't a primary source of heating so it will be turned off in the warmer months to reduce the gas consumption from the pilot light.
The fire itself is great though - costs about 8p an hour to run and it warms up the living room very quickly.

I have a similar fire and have had endless issues with the seals on the up and out balanced flu. Have you had similar problems ?

cranford

I have a Paragon RS balanced flue fire. Push in the control knob and give it a turn and the pilot comes on, release it and then turn the control for the fire to come on. Turn the control knob the other way and it returns to pilot but complete the turn and the pilot goes out. I tend to leave the pilot on during the heating season. Now have back problems so wish I had the remote control version.