It is every homeowner’s nightmare. A freezing cold evening and your furnace won’t start. You rush down to your basement to restart it, but after trying again and again you realize that your furnace won’t ignite and your electrician can’t possibly get out to your home for days. Don’t let this happen to you. You need to know how to light a gas heater so you will never have to suffer a freezing cold night.
The good news is that it is easy to relight your furnace if your unit is equipped with an electric ignition button:
- Check to make sure that the valves of your gas line are open. Sometimes they may be closed by accident.
- Make sure that your pilot light is indeed off, and that there is not another problem that is causing your heater to malfunction.
- Find the electric ignition button on your furnace. Usually they are red.
- Press and hold the button and listen for the clicking sound that means the electric starter is working.
- When the clicking sound stops, make sure the pilot light is lit, but keep pressing the button for a minute or so.
- Watch the pilot light for around 10 minutes to make sure that it does not go out. If it does, you can try to reignite your furnace using the same steps.
If you do not have an electric ignition for your furnace, the best option is to call a heating professional if your furnace won’t ignite. Trying to relight a pilot light manually can be very dangerous.
If you live in McKinney, Frisco or Allen, Texas you should call Bill Joplin’s Air Conditioning & Heating. We are heating experts who having been serving our local communities for more than 30 years.
