Is it safe to have a gas stove with a pilot light in a superinsulated house?
Our new super insulated home is nearing completion. My wife found a good deal on a used 36″ Garland gas stove. We are about to purchase the stove but it has occurred to me it might not be a good idea to but a stove with a pilot light in a house like ours. The house has a heat recovery ventilation system and a wood stove with an external air supply. There is also a range hood above the stove vented outside. I have heard that I could generate negative pressure inside the house which would extinguish the pilot light. Also, might I have an indoor air quality problem if the power was out for an extended time and the pilot light was burning?
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Let me see if I understand. You've built a super-insulated home with sealed combustion appliances and an HRV for recovering part of the heat of ventilation air, and you're considering installing an obsolete gas stove with a pilot light that burns 24/7, adds 750-1,000 btus/hour (18,000-24,000 btu/day, 5.4-7.2 therms/month at a cost of $11-29 per month) to the indoor environment summer and winter, and that may or may not have a thermocouple that shuts off gas flow to the pilot if the flame goes out?????????????????????????????????????????????
Looks like Robert left his finger on the '?' button a little too long there. He's one of my favorite posters to this site and can be wonderfully abrupt. You may be tempted to read condesention in the tone of his response but it should be read more like in a softer tone from a professor type of guy.
He makes a very good point and I'm no fan of pilot lights at all. I am, however, an architect and have had to have many awkward conversations with clients such as 'what's the most energy efficient whirlpool type of tub?' This is kind of like that. I'm guessing someone in the house is a real cook, or chef? Anyway, to answer your question: I doubt very much that the negative pressure of the fan would be enough to extinguish a pilot light. Likewise, a lit pilot light would have minimal effect on indoor air quality even with your ERV on the blink. (The humans inside will make things uncomfortable before the pilot light). An unlit pilot light would be a different story. I don't have any science to back it up, but I don't like it.
Were you my, client I'd go over options for your cooking needs and see if we can find a good deal on something more energy efficient. We might also take a look at that hood and see if it has some variable speed options. Chances are likely given the choice in stove, that the choice in hood might be on the large side as well.?
David,
Everyone has an opinion. Here's mine: sometimes people who spend all day thinking about green building lose perspective.
There are many things that are much more important than whether or not your stove has a pilot light. We can all argue for a week about the gas use from one stove's pilot light; meanwhile, people are making much more significant blunders every day.
If I were you, I wouldn't worry. Your house sounds well ventilated. People have been using stoves with pilot lights in homes with exhaust fans for years. So my advice to you (and to Robert) is, relax. Life is short, remember?
Martin et al:
Yes, there are more important things than pilot lights, but it's hardly a loss of perspective that would lead to the conclusion that the entire gas industry came to decades ago: pilot lights are dangerous and wasteful. In fact, I question the perspective that suggests that including a thoroughly wasteful appliance in an otherwise highly efficient house makes any sense. And I particularly question the perspective that suggests that, because some people somewhere are making serious energy efficiency blunders, its OK for a super-efficient house to include one by intent.
Yes, people have been using stoves with pilot lights for years in leaky houses. Many designers of super-efficient and tight homes wouldn't even consider a gas stove let along one that is burning 24/7. I think there are many advantages to gas stoves, and no self-respecting chef would cook on anything else. But there is no excuse for the utter wastefulness and potential danger of a pilot light anymore.
Rather than "relax" about such absurdities, we should be much more vigilant about avoiding them.