How much gas does a standing pilot light burn?
A standing pilot — the little flame that stays lit around the clock — burns very little, but it isn't zero. Most fall somewhere around 600 to 1,000 BTU per hour — on the order of a gallon of propane every four or five days. On natural gas it's a minor line on your bill; if it bugs you, shut the pilot off in the off-season or pick a unit with electronic ignition.
What a standing pilot actually costs you
A standing (continuous) pilot is the old-school design: a tiny flame that stays lit 24/7 so the fireplace fires instantly when you turn it on. It sips fuel — a small fraction of what the main burner uses — but over a full year it adds up to a noticeable, if modest, share of the appliance's fuel use, since it's running even in July.
On propane, where you're paying by the tank, folks in Fairview and Candler notice it more than natural-gas customers on the Asheville mains do. It's never a budget-buster; it's just not free.
The easy off-season move
The simplest savings is to turn the pilot off from spring through early fall when you're not using the fireplace. Most standing-pilot valves have a clearly marked off position, and shutting it down for the warm months cuts that year-round draw to nothing.
One caveat we see weekly: a pilot that's been off all summer is exactly where spiders and dust set up shop in the burner orifices, so plan on relighting it — and having us tune it — in late summer before you depend on it. That off-season clog is the single most common no-start call we get in the fall.
Or skip the standing pilot entirely
Newer units use electronic or intermittent ignition (IPI) — the pilot only lights when you call for a flame, so there's no year-round burn at all. Napoleon's battery-backup ignition and Heat & Glo's IntelliFire Plus are examples we install regularly, and they carry a real mountain advantage: battery backup means the fireplace still lights when the power's out, which a lot of our customers cared about a great deal after Helene.
If a standing pilot's constant flame or its off-season relight hassle bothers you, that's worth weighing when you choose the unit. Call (828) 545-0525 and we'll walk you through the ignition options.
Related questions
- How much gas does a fireplace use per hour at full input?
- Does a gas fireplace need electricity, and will it still work in a power outage?
- Will my fireplace put out less heat on propane than on natural gas?
- What size propane tank do I need to run a gas fireplace or log set at home?
- How many BTUs does a typical gas fireplace put out?
- How many BTUs per square foot do I need to heat a room with a fireplace?
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