Dealing with “Pilot Error” on Your Heating System

We know that windy days are rough for airplane pilots. But did you know that they can also play havoc with the pilot light in your gas heating system?

It’s true. If your heat goes off on a cold, windy day, and your gas heating system has a pilot light, you should probably first check to see if the pilot light is still lit. There’s a good reason for this: on a very windy day the pilot light can be blown out through a down draft. If this has happened, simply follow the directions for relighting the pilot that are printed on the instruction plate on your furnace.

By the way, you should know that the pilot light could also go out if there is a temporary interruption to the gas supply.

But suppose, when you relight your pilot, it doesn’t stay lit. What then? It could be that your thermocouple is defective. (The thermocouple is a small fitting that the pilot flame touches and heats up.) You can call ClearView Plumbing and Heating to replace this, or you can remove the thermocouple yourself and take it to a hardware store to purchase an identical thermocouple. Once you’ve installed the new thermocouple, follow the directions for relighting the pilot light.

Or it could be that the pilot flame might be too small to heat the thermocouple tip, in which case you would need to remove the pilot and clean it, or call ClearView plumbing and heating to do this for you.

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