new boiler question

Theresa DaSilva

I have a newly installed gas fired steam heat boiler. It did not come with an automatic ignition. I don't know whether to put on an automatic ignition or leave it with a pilot light. Can anyone enlighten me as to, in their opinion, which is best?

SBoston

Home Owner



Just a home owner here,

But I also had a new Burnham IN6 gas fired steam boiler installed about a year ago. I decided to go with an electronic ignition as it gave about a 1% efficiency gain compared to a standing pilot. I also didn't want to worry about the pilot going out. Although the system is only a year old we have had 0 problems so far with the boiler. It seems to me that with all the high efficiency furnaces and boilers that use electric ignition these days that they would be rather robust. 

Just my 2 cents.

4Barrel

i just installed

a standing pilot. i ordered the electronic ignition, but the lead time was too long, and the supplier had the standing pilot in stock. given my short window for install, i went with the standing pilot.



the main difference is the efficiency rating will be slightly higher with the electronic ignition. that's because you won't have the gas on fueling the pilot light all the time. but this is countered by the fact that with the standing pilot, it will keep warm the boiler sections between cycles.



in the end, you might save a few bucks on your gas bill, but you'd need to compare this to the cost of upgrading the current unit.

Unknown

Gas Question

Theresa - You might want to ask this questions in the Gas Heating Section.  Tim McElwain, who is an expert on gas, monitors that section. He could give you some good input on this.  He may see you post here though he's pretty busy and might miss it so that's why I'm suggesting you post  there too.

- Rod