Last night the pilot light on our furnace decided to take a vacation while it was 18 degrees outside.

I quickly realized that I have very little understanding of how the heating system in my house actually works. After putting together some makeshift plans for keeping the family warm through the night, I headed out to see if I could get things working again. Luckily, I was successful.

(For a more detailed wright-up of the experience, see my blog post, Domestic Adventures )

This episode clearly brought home the reality that if we suffer a power failure during the winter, our home will become un-livable very quickly, possibly within a matter of hours (my wife and I would probably be OK for a while with our cold weather gear, but it's hard to keep a seven-month old warm enough in sub zero temperatures for an extended time). Our furnace is gas fred, but requires electicity to work, and we have no wood stove or fireplace.

So, two questions:

1) How can I lean more about how home heating systems work, so that I might be able to diagnose and repair a problem on my own without putting myself in danger? I believe I got lucky last night when I fixed the problem, and don't want to rely on the same luck in the future. I imagine that this could save me some money over time as well.

2) What strategies do others have for keeping their homes and families warm when their primary heating system is out? Are there better (and less expensive) options than installing a wood stove? How much does a wood stove cost anyhow?

Thanks for any advice the group can provide.

Sounds like you may need a newer furnace if it has a pilot light, they haven't had those in many years. You may save a lot of $ getting a newer one.
They all operate basically the same, somehting has to light the burner(s) and open the gas valve. Most of the electronics are safety and timing, there are safetys that will shut off the gas if the valve opens but the temperateure doesn't come up assuming the flame is out and things like that.
A gas furnace doesn't need a lot of power, the blower mostly, you could easily power with a small generator.

A couple of strategies.
One small kerosene space heater and/or two kerosene (oil)* lamps.
This is enough to heat a small room.
Some extra blankets and sweaters, you can even hang blankets over doorways that don't have doors to close them off a bit.

A baby can be quite happy carried against your body under your bulky sweater, or shawl.
My sister-in-law used a nursing shawl and a baby carrier with all her kids when walking, same idea.

*The mineral spirits sold as paint thinner are better grade kerosene than kerosene fuel is, more like odorless lamp oil but at a lower price*

Also the oil table lamps can be stored out in the open, like on a bookshelf as antiques.
You can get very nice looking glass ones in antique stores as well as new ones.
They put out quite a bit of heat when you fill them and light them.
Most of them burn about 12 hours on a filling.

You can also get the "Hurricane" style oil lamps for about $25.00 each.
The Deitz #80 Blizzard burns for at least 24 hours.
Lehman's sells a version of the Deitz that can function as a small campstove too, the metalwork above the chimney on the lamp lets you set a small pot on it.

Sounds like you have a couple of scenarios to consider.

-Power outage
-Furnace broken

For a broken furnace, an electric space heater may prove useful.

If you find yourself in a situation trying to keep a little one warm, bundle them into your jacket with you. Your body heat will defintely keep them warm enough.

If you insulate a room well enough with blankets, you would be surprised at how much heat a candle can provide. Those 7 month olds are pretty robust. My little guy is 10 months now.

I would imagine you would only undress them to change them. Beyond that, keep them in a snowsuit or bundled with you.

Do you have a gas stove? You can turn on a burner and light with a lighter (preferably one of the long ones). I would have the lighter going first tho. That would also provide heat and doesn't require power.

I'm sure there are some simple HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) books in the local library. Or buy online. Or something like About.com might have material.

Furnaces are pretty simple though the recent push for efficiency has brought computers into the mix (ominous music goes here) and spark-initiated fireup rather than pilot lights.

We changed out our furnace last Spring and the new one is much less fixable than the old.

Something to consider is if you do fail to get the furnace to go and the house will go to ambient you'd best find a way to drain the plumbing (potable water - your hot water heating system should be filled with anti-corrosion/anti-freeze??? treated water) to minimize pipe damage and water damage upon thawing.

i really can't give you much advice but our furnace kicked out this AM also..we got up to a cold house.we have a one of those new gas furnaces with the plastic vent rather than a real chimney.
instructions for re-lighting on on the access plate.turn off power-turn off gas--wait--turn on power-turn on gas-replace plate-turn up thermostat---furnace comes on...YES--YES--!!
i think when everyones furnace kicks on really cold AM's the gas pressure drops and the furnace safety system turns it off
i also eyeball the generators at the Big Box shop to keep the furnace running if there is a major power loss in the city. about the best i could do would be to bring the old cast iron box stove that was out at our cabin many years ago from the shed and jerry rig a chimney thru a basement window and burn what wood we can scrounge from the river flats.

Not all new furnaces have electronic ignition, and the modules can be a bear

I still have a pilot light - in fact, it WAS electronic, and was back converted when the electronics failed

There is a thermocouple that sits in the pilot light - or in the starter flame of gas furnaces - These tend to fail every few years. Around here, you have 2 choices - hope the 24 hr home depot has one in stock, or do like I do - keep a spare on the wall in the boiler room - they cost less than $20, and it can be a big help to just have it.

I keep an assortment of valves, fittings, pipe, copper pipe, nipples, etc around. Dad was in the business, and 1)Taught me, and 2)Gave me enough stuff to fix most things (NO, I won't do a boiler replacement by myself). Now that Dad has passed on, I now have HIS collection of plumbing/HVAC supplies and duplicate tools to sell offf - aaarrrgggh

Our old house has a pilot light but it wasn't always lit. The thermostat would turn on a small valve to the small polit light and a spark ignitor would keep ticking away. Then that small flame would heat up the thermocouple and open the main valve for the main flame. One morning the thermocouple failed. It was a small box that plugged into the valve and then had a stiff wire coming out that the small polit like flame hit. I took the nuts off the bolt for the small box and found that it basically pressed a button that opened the valve so I was able to sit there holding the button down for a while until the house got back up to a decent temperature and then go buy a new thermocouple which for that old furnace was $79.
The blower fan motor sized up a couple times in the 13 yeras I was there, a little oil dripped in the shaft got it going until the third time I had to buy a new motor for $120.

1) I made an effort to get to know the guy who sold and installed my gas-fired furnace.

It paid off a couple of years later during a blizzard. The furnace would light and then kick out. I gave him a call, and because he knew I was handy he talked me through the simple fix: a slight layer of ash/corrosion on the flame sensor thermocouple. Ten minutes and a bit of steel wool later, everything was operational. This is now part of my annual maintenance list. He was very glad he didn't have to make a service call on the most miserable day of the winter.

2) I have a high-quality wood stove for secondary heat. Since I'm in the country, it's no problem to have two years' wood stored.

A good wood stove, properly installed, is not cheap. I would say at least $1500 to go for stove and insulated pipe. If you buy junk, you'll get junk and you'll hate it. Though there are some good deals in the used market if you know what to look for.

Keep in mind you will probably need permits, insurance inspections, and so on. You will also pay an extra insurance fee for solid fuel appliances in your house.

Improvised stove setups are tricky, and potentially hazardous. If you burn down your house, insurance will laugh in your face. I do keep an old coal/wood stove around, with lots of piping and adjustable elbows, should I need to do an improvised setup. I keep a three foot section of insulated pipe (7" ID, with 2" insulation) that I can mount in a window, so I can run a 5-6" single-wall pipe to the outdoors with some degree of safety. I also keep some large sheet metal pieces around to improvise heat shields. You can't be too careful.

I am contemplating a small, insulated shed with a stove and blower (120VAC/12VDC) inside it, and some insulated supply/return air pipes. That way the actual fire is outside the house. If it was on skids, I could move it anywhere in my yard quite easily.

Another thought - the fact that you successfully relit the pilot light doesn't mean that the flame won't go out again.

The fact that it went out suggests that the real cause is something else- such as the thermocouple which holds the gas valve slightly open to keep the pilot flame light is failing.

Changing the thermocouple is very simple. Having a spare on hand as previously mentioned is a great idea.

But you have not done full troubleshooting just by relighting. That's like getting your stalled car out of traffic by push starting it :-)

About 20 years ago we had a furnace problem where gas supply went away. Neighbors had no issues. It was a failed meter which wouldn't flow gas. Utility company came out fairly quickly and replaced the meter. That was a flavor of failure I couldn't fix myself.

I forgot about mine, the one time it wouldn't light it turned out there was some dirt in the end of the little pilot and it wasn't burning enought to heat the thermocouple. I found that out of course after spending the $79 on the thermocouple and then noticed the flame wasn't even hitting it. The fix was poking a paper clip in the end of the pilot to clean it out.

Our new house has a 1995 model furnace with no pilot light so it has less to fail. The house is the same size but going from the old 70's style furnace with a polit to a newer 90's style we use about 1/2 the gas.

Be careful. Even in Florida, I've seen more than a couple house fires from people using candles as heat. Kids or pets and candles don't mix well.

I had a wood stove installed this summer. a very large stove, brand new installation including pipe on exterior wall of house cost us $5,700. I live in NH. earlier this year we had an ice storm and lost power for a week. The wood stove was a godsend. made things verly simple an its well on the way to paying for itself.

With the make and model of your furnace, you may be able to download a manual with some troubleshooting info.

If you have a BBQ, you might be able to heat up some bricks hot enough (OUTDOORS) to put into a metal bucket to heat a small room in your house. Set the bucket on some bricks. Have some kind of tongs or shovel to move them from the stove to the bucket. If your BBQ has a cover, use it.

Make sure you have a regular non-electronic telephone with a cord (cheap at thrift shops). If you do need to go somewhere if the power is out, it's best to call around first, to find out of friends are home (and have power or heat) or if there are shelters available.

Pull the mattresses off the beds and put them in a corner of one room, building a small shelter with them as the building blocks. Have a blanket hanging over the opening.

Stove dealers often take decent stoves in trade, and sell them as used. Check around. Not only will you need stove pipe, but you'll probably need some kind of brick foundation and surround for it.

Sue

If it was 18*F outside and your furnace went out and your house got cold then there are other problems to worry about too. Insulation, seals around the windows, seals around the doors, leaky ducting in the attic or under the house or in the walls, leaks around the power outlets on the walls, leaks around exposed beams, leaks around the entrance to the attic, leaks around the water lines under the sinks (shower, toilet). Do you have blinds for every windows? What about curtains on top of the blinds?

In a properly sealed house if your furnace was working and say 68*-71* inside you should have been able to go all night and not notice much of a temp drop.

Double up the insulation in the attic, if you have insulation between the 2x4s or 2x6s put some going crosswise and double it up.

DO NOT block off dormer vents, or whirlibirds you need air flow in your attic, and you need it under your house too... need to breath so it does not sweat.

If you have a sliding glass door or other large windowd doors make sure they are covered. If you don't have dual pain or very very old dual pain this could be why too.

There's some ideas

ToddW,

Insulation is a major issue, and I'm aware of it.

Before we moved in, this house was primarily used as a summer beach house, and was rarely occupied when it got cold out. I've managed to seal up most of the leaks where you could actually feel the wind blowing through the house, but there are still cold spots I need to deal with. One major cold spot leads me to believe there's a leak behind the kitchen cabinets, which I am not looking forward to dealing with.

Thanks for the tip. I was pretty amazed by how fast it was getting cold inside.

Definitely sounds like that is a more pressing need than the furnace.

In the short term, however, many of the suggestions above should prove useful if something happens.

Think warm, close, snuggled thoughts...

Spray polyurethane foam insulation (by the can) can sure help seal a house up. All you need is one little hole to access the deadspace behind the cabinet and you can fill the whole void.

Plan your use wisely. Once you start the can use it all as it will not keep. Also make sure to use low expansion foam around doors and windows. The regular stuff can actually move the jambs and block door/window operation. Yes, this was an expensive lesson in the past.

Dang Desperado, you took all the fun away...now he won't get to see what a pregnant wall looks like.

"One major cold spot leads me to believe there's a leak behind the kitchen cabinets..."

All my cold spots like that are the 4" holes in the floor to make room for the 2" pipes. One was large enough for the cat to get through.

Sue

Being a home builder, you would be shocked at how many times I have caught someone at the Home Depot checkout line with a new window/door and the "regular" (high expansion) foam.

The insulating sub-contractor we used in the past once sent a new guy to seal a house for us. $32,000.00 worth of windows and door frames later he was looking for work and so was that sub.

Sue,

Seems like I remember you saying you own a manufactured home.

Generally, the manufactured homes have fiberglass batt insulation held in place by a black almost tarp like cover underneath. This "tarp" degrades even if the structure has been closed off all the way to the ground. Once it degrades, the insulation falls out post-haste.

If you can, you might contact an insulation company that installs the poly-foam spray on stuff. You will be amazed at the difference it makes over the first year.

Consider a strategic withdrawal. Castle dwellers of old often had layers of defense. As one layer was overcome they would fall back. Retreating to the inside of concentric circles reduces the perimeter and allows you to concentrate resources.

For cold emergencies you could select a small interior room, work to increase its ability to resist cold and make your stand.

Ideally the room would be built specifically to resist cold with added insulation, entry through a warmth preserving air lock, no windows or skylights, doors insulated exterior types in well weatherstripped frames, and water, food, minimal cooking and sanitation facilities located within the enclosure. ideally the plumbing in the house would be built to allow all the water lines to be drained to prevent freezing.

Less prepared ahead of time it is still practical to retreat to a large walk-in closet or similar small interior room. Insulation can be improved by hanging sheets and blankets on the walls and ceiling maintaining about an inch between layers. The body heat from three or four people in a confined space will often keep it warm with any extra heat. Candles, oil lamps, small propane or electric heaters can be used as needed but precautions need to be rigorously observed to prevent fire, and carbon monoxide poisoning. If you bring food, water and a chemical toilet with you there is no need to leave so the warmth stays put.

If you rig a small enclosure made of blankets outside the door heat loss can be controlled when the door is opened.

I know a couple who made it through sub-zero temperatures in an unfinished, unheated house by pitching a small tent, inside a medium sized tent, inside a large tent, inside their living room on a couple of layers of discarded carpet. They used a tiny single-burner propane stove to cook on, a chemical toilet, and a couple of candles for heat. They said even when the outside was fifteen below with a strong wind the innermost space was always comfortable.

The HVAC contractor who was maintaining our gas heat system would replace the thermocouple every one to two years as a maintenance item, and he'd hang the old one on the side of the furnace as an emergency spare. It's like keeping the best of the old tires as the spare when you re-shoe your Plymouth.

Propane is relatively safe, especially the catalytic units, and various models of heaters span a huge range of BTU and capacity. A popular one is from Mr. Heater , which has an oxygen sensor. Coleman has a variety of units, too.

Many use small disposable propane bottles, but can accept a converter for larger gas-grill-size tanks.

Ditto on the CO sensor... battery-powered and AC-with-battery-backup units are available.

Steve

The pilot light safety device associated with gas appliances such as furnaces and water heaters depends on a self-generated electric current and a complete electrical circuit. The current is generated via a piezoelectric cell. When a piezoelectric cell is heated, it generates a current. The heat comes from the pilot light flame which is in close proximity to the piezoelectric cell. This current activates the safety controller to allow the gas to continue to flow. When this current stops flowing, the safety controller shuts off the gas. The design of the circuit is to shut the gas off if the pilot light flame goes out. In my experience, the main failure of this circuit is not the piezoelectric cell or the safety controller. It is the connection at the safety controller where the piezoelectric aluminum tubing screws in. At that point, the aluminum tubing screws into either an aluminum or copper socket completing an electrical circuit.

As many of you may be aware, aluminum to aluminum or aluminum to copper electrical connections are fraught with problems. When aluminum is exposed to the oxygen in air, it creates aluminum oxide. Over time, this oxide builds up, creating more and more electrical resistance. In the past, when aluminum was first used in house and RV wiring, this build up of resistance due to higher current flow caused many devastating fires. Changes were made to electrical codes to prevent the formation and build up of oxides where aluminum wiring or connections were made. Usually this involved the use of dielectric grease to stop oxygen from reaching the connection. For some reason, all the appliances I have serviced, even newer ones, do not use dielectric grease in the pilot light safety circuit. There is not enough current generated by the piezoelectric cell to start a fire, but what occurs is that the build up of resistence reduces the current flow enough to cause the safety controller to shut the gas off just as if the pilot light flame went out.

There is an easy way to correct this problem. Shut off the gas and the electricity to the appliance. Unscrew the piezoelectric tube from the safety controller. Use a plastic scrub pad to rather gently remove the oxide from both sides of the connection, both the external tube connector threads and the internal safety controller threads. Blow any residue away. Coat the threads with dielectric grease and reconnect the fittings. Turn the power and gas back on and relight the appliance as directed on the safety controller. Do not be concerned about disconnecting the piezoelectric connection, there is no gas flowing through this tubing, it is strictly an electrical circuit that is not in any way connected to an external electrical circuit. Current is only present when the pilot light flame heats the piezoelectric cell and the circuit is complete. If you have shut off the gas, there is no pilot light flame, thus no current. The only caution is not to cross thread the fitting when reconnecting. Start the fitting by hand and use a proper wrench when removing and reconnecting, not a pair of pliers which may destroy the fitting.

I have done this maintenance procedure to both my own and my parents’ appliances for many years. I have a furnace and a water heater in one home that are thirty five years old and I have never had to replace a piezoelectric cell or a safety controller and they are both still working. In fact, I have never had to replace either in any appliance I have owned or serviced! If you are qualified, you can use an additional pilot light, piezoelectric cell, safety controller, and or custom circuitry to generate a current for other purposes when there is no other electricity available or during power outages.

Some appliance service personnel know only what they have been taught or know how to make more money. It takes the same amount of time to do either. But to replace the part, they make more money.

The normal expanding foam works fine for windows and doors as long as the foam has a place to expand to. High-expanding (marked on the bottle) I'd be careful with ALL OVER.

IE: Don't shoot an entire bottle of that stuff into the cavity between your outside wall and your inside wall unless you know it has a large void to fill... it WILL push out your wall. With that said I shot an entire can behind my shower to make my pipes stop vibrating.... (forgot to during install).. I know there is a HUGE cavity back there.

I also used it for my doors but there was no trim on the inside or outside so it just squirted out... cut with a blade, and easy insulation

Also using it on my second story where the walls are / they sometimes left 1" between the wall and the floor with insulation exposed... ceiling that up, then doing the tiny holes with silicone II. Then that`ll be covered by carpet, and MAYBE baseboard if we can figure out how to put it on a wall that slants.. hmmm.

A side note... when the can is empty don't throw it on a nail there's still tons left. WOOPS. The junk pile was sharp.