When You Try To Fix Your Pilot Light, But You Can't Find It: The Real Issue Here
Some DIY homeowners are relying on the knowledge they gained as kids or as teenagers. It can be a moment of truth and/or embarrassment, especially when your furnace does not seem to be working and you spend over an hour trying to find the pilot light. If you have not found the pilot light after an hour, it might be because of one of the following.
Your Furnace Is Electrical
Only furnaces that burn propane or natural gas (and sometimes oil) ever had pilot lights. Completely electrical furnaces do not need pilot lights because they do not burn any fuel to create heat. Additionally, if you have a boiler for heat, you are not likely to find a pilot light for this type of furnace either.
Pilot Lights Have Almost Been Completely Phased Out
Yep, most modern furnaces, regardless of what fuel type they burn or how they create heat, no longer have pilot lights. Instead, they have electrical ignition switches. These switches are triggered to click on and ignite the fuel source when you send a signal from the thermostat to the furnace. That said, spending all that time looking for a pilot light when you should have been looking for an ignition switch may seem rather a waste. You should also know that most ignition switches are tucked behind circuit boards, so these switches would be nearly impossible to locate anyway, even if you had known to look for an ignition switch instead of a pilot light.
Your Last Furnace Had a Pilot Light, but You Replaced It With a Newer Model
It can be quite the funny scenario when you were so used to checking a pilot light on your old furnace, and then you replace the old furnace with a newer model and cannot find the pilot light anymore. This is not an uncommon situation, especially if you are not aware of the fact that modern/updated fuel-burning furnaces now have ignition switches. If your heating repair technician failed to mention this fact to you during the installation of your new furnace, do not feel bad. It is something an HVAC technician will tell you when he/she comes to make the repairs to your newer furnace when you do not seem to be getting any heat. Then you can just log that tidbit of useful information away for the future, when your furnace may start acting up again.
For more information, check out a website like https://www.imsheatingandair.com.