Please Help! I’m away and I’ve turned my pilot light out.,

doggydogdog

So I’m away for 2 weeks, my boiler is over 20yrs old and i’m on a meter, I’ve been paying 90p a day for just having the pilot light lit. I haven’t Been using heating or hot water so I’m paying over 40p a day to not use it on top of the standing charge. So I thought while I’m away I will switch the thermostat knob from 5 (max) down to 0.. but now I’m panicking incase it is dangerous., will it cause a gas build up or anything? Or is it totally safe to do this? I thought it was but now someone told me it should always be lit and I’m worried about it! It’s an old glow worm one in the kitchen with a hot water cylinder in the airing cupboard. 

daveyjp

No problem.  The gas valve will shut once the flame is out.

The only issue may be when you return and try and light it again.

doggydogdog

Thank you so much 🙏🏻
I’ll have to deal with that when I return to a cold house… regretting it a bit now but I just couldn’t bear it to be burning away for nothing!! thank you - I will be able to sleep tonight knowing it’s safe! 

C_Mababejive

I'd be surprised if its costing you 90p per day ?

doggydogdog

C_Mababejive said:

I'd be surprised if it’s costing you 90p per day ?

Yes I was surprised too. Especially  as I’m not getting any benefit from it. I had the heating and hot water on for exactly 1hr the other day and that cost me an extra £1 on top. The room only increased by 1° which I know it takes a degree an hour for my house anyway but the radiators barely warmed up by the time I had to turn it off again! But my gas for that day was £1.80 or 90 - that’s for one hour of using it! That used to be an exuberant day for both gas and electric 😥 I think it’s a combo of old inefficient boiler and pay as you go meter but I’m in private rented so I have to suck it up I guess.. 

edit / Im in a 2 up 2 down house built 1999/2000 and all non used radiators turned off so 4 working ones. 

Glum

C_Mababejive said:

I'd be surprised if its costing you 90p per day ?

For comparison, my boiler's pilot is costing about 66p per day or £242 per year.

If you just turned the thermostat knob to zero, the pilot light should still be lit and you will see your gas meter slowly counting up (at a rate of about 0.5 cubic metres a day). There should be a control valve that you have to hold in when lighting the pilot. If you turned that to 'Off' then the pilot light will be out.

wild666

I'm unlucky if my boiler uses more than 2.5 kWh of gas per week never mind 0.5 cubic meters. I turned down the heating temperature on the boiler so low that I use virtually nothing per day. Last week I used 0.3 kWh per day, 2.13 kWh in a week.

Coffeekup

wild666 said:

I'm unlucky if my boiler uses more than 2.5 kWh of gas per week never mind 0.5 cubic meters. I turned down the heating temperature on the boiler so low that I use virtually nothing per day. Last week I used 0.3 kWh per day, 2.13 kWh in a week.

Impressive as usual @wild666, you put me to shame and I'm around 2.7 kWh a day and have been since March. I could get it a but lower but I like a good shower and could manage my washing of the dishes better.