Auto ignite replacement for furnace?

[Yak22]

Hello all-
I have gained a buch of knowledge from the group here, and I thought maybe someone could help with another problem Im having..

I have an old house furnace I installed in my garage this winter.. It works great with only one downside. I cant afford to leave it running all the time, so I have to turn on the gas and manually light the pilot every time I go out to work in the garage... While this is little more than a slight inconvenience, I though I might try to get the auto ignite working. It clearly had an auto ignite at one point in its life, since the end near the pilot is still there... However, the wire has been cut, and it looks like the ignitor is toast.

So, with that said, how would i go about replacing this? Im sure I can go buy another ignitor, and wrestle the thin in there, but where would the wire connect? thats the part I cant seem to figure out... also, while Im asking questions, I was thinking it might be nice to be able to just run the furnace fan during the summer months, but I cant seem to figure out how to do that either...

Any advice would be greatly appreciated...

here are some pics of the furnace... the pink wire (very small stub) in the second pic is the cut ignitor wire...

 

[rickairmedic]

Yak it looks like it had a spark ignition system in it at some point but I dont see the ignition control box in the pics . That means someone converted it back to standing pilot most likely due to the fact the old spark ignitions were finicky little bastages . You can still get conversion kits . I would say google furnace spark ignition kit and see what pops up . The fan issue isnt a big deal right now you most likely have a 2 wire heat only thermostat which is why you cant get the fan to operate by itself. You would need a thermostat for heating and cooling which will have a fan switch on it with 2 settings auto and on . You also need 4 wire thermostat wire to make this work although you will only be using 3 wires ( Red 24 volts hot White is for heat and Green would be for the fan .

Rick

 

[Yak22]

great info.. I'll google a bit... thanks so much! I can wait on the fan, much more interested in the pilot at this point...

Since I am just learning about furnaces.. How does the furnace's electric gas valve know when the 'added' spark ignition fires? So it can turn on the gas? Or do I have it backwards?

My confusion comes from the fact that I seem to have to hold the pilot 'valve' knob to get the gas to start, until there is enough heat for the valve to stay open..

 

[Yak22]

Whoa. Those retrofit kits are a pretty penny... worth more than the furnace...
I guess I'll just keep manually lighting it... yikes..

My main concern for doing this was, that I was worried that I would wear out the gas valve, but at only a few bucks for one of those, I'll take my chances... I have 3 on the line to the garage anyway, so if this one fails, I can shut it down, and replace it.

 

[rickairmedic]

Yak the kit would come with the proper gas valve which uses a differant system than what is in the furnace now to tell the gas valve the gas is lit . With your current setup there is a Thermocouple which snses the heat from the pilot being lit and when the thermostat calls for heat as long as the thermocouple says the pilot is lit it will open the gas valve and the furnace lights. With electronic ignition systems a flame sensor is used to sense the gas is lit which allows the gas valve to stay open if no flame is sensed within 7 seconds the gas valve is shut off. Some of the older spark ignition systems would just keep sparking for a set amount of time until the thermocouple was heated enough for the pilot to stay on and at that point the main valve on the gas valve would open.

Rick

 

[rickairmedic]

Here ya go Yak hope your sitting down .

http://www.myhvacparts.com/Catalogue/Gas Furnace Controls/Honeywell Gas Retrofit Kit.htm


Rick

 

[rickairmedic]

Yak the only thing you are likely to wear out with what your doing is a thermocouple and they are quite cheap .

Rick

 

[mmg440]

Do you really need to shut the whole thing down with the gas?? A polit draws a little bit of gas but hardly worth shutting down. I would think just put a inline toggle with the thermostat so you can shut down any call for heat and the furnace won't turn back on until you switch it back on.

 

[Yak22]

Rick. That's the same site I saw. Ouch. I guess that lighting it is a bit annoying, but not $300 annoying.

Matt. I wasn't sure how much a pilot light actually consumes. I have a switch already wired in, which I use also, I just never could figure the draw of a pilot.

 

[rickairmedic]

Yak the pilot if set properly really doesnt burn alot of gas so I wouldnt worry about it so much . Your water heater has a standing pilot if it is gas and furnaces did for many years before we all went nuts and put computers into everything we could get our hands on .

Rick

 

[rickairmedic]

Yak I will ad here before I spent $300 on a conversion kit I would be watching Craigslist for a 90%+ furnace on the cheap . I have noticed quite a lot of them on there lately as peaple are trying to recoup their costs on new installations alot of peaple are converting over to all electric most likely due to misinformation .

Rick

 

[mmg440]

Rick. That's the same site I saw. Ouch. I guess that lighting it is a bit annoying, but not $300 annoying.

Matt. I wasn't sure how much a pilot light actually consumes. I have a switch already wired in, which I use also, I just never could figure the draw of a pilot.

I am not sure it would be very easily to calculate. I am sure there is some information available on the subject. If the pilot is set relatively low. I would think a few dollars a month. You would most likely not be able to justify the expense on a older unit. I know the difference in the summer month gas bill was not even noticed after I installed a furnace in my parents garage in the home I grew up in. Yes I left the pilot on all summer. Of course back then the we already had many pilots running in the home, Both ovens, stove tops, furnace, water heater and even the cloth drier. So It wasn't a worry about one more standing pilot.

 

[Yak22]

Thanks again for all the help... I think I'll just keep using the valve for now, since its almost summer anyway... Then re-examine my needs (and my wallet) come fall...

I was hoping to upgrade to a ceiling mounted furnace in the future anyway, so I might just hold off and go that route... I really only installed this one because I had it and it didnt really cost that much to implement it as a short term solution.

I appreciate all the help and insight!

 

[rickairmedic]

No problem at all Yak like I said keep an eye on your local craigslist for a deal on an electronic ignition furnace . I am seeing them pop up alot lately peaple are keeping them and selling them rather than having the contractors haul them off most likely due to the economy they are trying to recoup some of their money. When you find one pop on here and ask me if its a good deal as I have seen some priced way to high for used equipment . Peaple dont take into account the install costs when reselling so they think the equipment is worth more than it really is .

Rick