What is intermittent pilot ignition (IPI) on a gas fireplace?
Intermittent pilot ignition (IPI) is an electronic system that lights the pilot only when you want a fire, then shuts it off completely when you're done — so no gas burns between fires. When you hit the switch or remote, a spark lights the pilot, the pilot lights the burner, and a sensor confirms flame the whole time. It needs power, usually with battery backup.
Fire on demand, nothing in between
Intermittent pilot ignition, or IPI, is the electronic alternative to a standing pilot. Instead of a flame that burns all the time, IPI creates the pilot only when you ask for a fire. Hit the switch or remote and a control board fires a spark at the pilot, the pilot lights the main burner, and a flame sensor confirms fire is present the entire time it's running. When you shut it off, everything goes out — no flame, no gas, until the next time.
The efficiency win
Because nothing burns between fires, an IPI unit uses zero gas when it's off. Over a WNC off-season that's real savings compared to a pilot burning from April to October, and there's no summer flame heating up the room. The IntelliFire family we install — IntelliFire Plus on the Heat & Glo units, IntelliFire on the Heatilator, IntelliFire Touch on the Majestic — is all intermittent-pilot ignition, and it pairs naturally with remotes, wall timers, and thermostats.
The string attached — it needs power
The honest tradeoff is that IPI needs electricity to spark and to run its board. On its own, an IPI fireplace won't light in a power outage — which in this part of the country matters. That's why nearly every IPI unit includes a battery backup that takes over automatically when the grid drops, as long as the batteries are fresh. We swap those batteries as part of annual service so you're not discovering dead ones in the middle of a January outage. If pure grid-independence is your goal, we'll steer you toward a millivolt system instead. Call (828) 545-0525.
Related questions
- What's the difference between IPI and a standing pilot?
- What is a standing pilot light and what does it actually do?
- What is the battery backup on an electronic ignition fireplace for?
- What is flame sensing (flame rectification) on a gas fireplace?
- Will a gas fireplace still work when the power goes out?
- What is a direct vent gas fireplace and how does it work?
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