WHY IS IT SO FREEZING COLD IN THE HOUSE?
 

Because, my fucking mentally challenged kids went out to play in the snow and let the door WIDE OPEN.

That was 20 minutes ago.

Where's my book on Skinnerian behavior modification?

"It's SNOWING!"

*scurry*

Spray them with the hose and then lock the doors.

Well, I haven't turned on my heat at all because I'm road-testing my polarfleece sheets. They work.

I just broke down this am... Having a challenged kid is one thing.
Having one that is also sick is quite another.
:( I haven't put the heat on before Thanksgiving in many years.

Psychologically I feel your pain, even though my reality does not come close to matching. Early this morning, I woke up shivering. I thought, "Holy shit, they were right about that cold front coming in. I should have set it to heat before I went to bed just in case." I bundled my robe around me and walked all stiff-legged to the thermostat to switch the heat on.

And you know what the thermostat said?

72. Seventy. Freaking. Two. I am not kidding, I was genuinely shivering and I had been expecting it to say no more than 65 at the very highest. I had to check the other one upstairs just to make sure it wasn't broken. Apparently this summer completely broke my internal temperature sensors.

When I was in High School there was a kid whose father was a diplomat or something like that and the family was from Nigeria. He'd wear a down parka in the summer when it was 90 degrees.

I guess it's what you're used to.

I thought 61 in my house this am was comfy :eek: No snow though. Hub and I did spend 2 hours replacing our back door today. The other one would be open by itself. No kids, ghosts or errant dogs to blame. 68 right now. 37 outside

We keep out house at 62 all winter unless we have guests over, then we throw caution to the wind and and crank it up to 64.

Suck it up and tell me how to light my pilot. kthxbai

;)

Seriously, I've tried. I've watched 67 online videos, printed about 15 pages, and read every forum I could find. But there is nothing that looks like any of the videos, not in my furnace, and apparently skipping the part of the directions that says to put the flame to the pilot assembly are non-negotiable: waving a lighter around in the hole is too imprecise.

This little electric heater works just fine for now...but I'll need heat soon. Ugh, winter.

Open up your furnace. Take a picture. Post on the cellar.

What makes you think you need to light your pilot? Did you shut it off in the Spring? Maybe it's still lit, or maybe you have electric ignition. Our pilot light burns all summer. It wastes a bit of gas, but *shrug*.

Well, I think Bozo would turn it off in the spring because you could still feel the heat coming out of it.

It's a very old furnace.

There is a pilot light "off/on/pilot" button and some sort of gas release valve. I imagine the pilot light is behind the little trap door thingy, but there is nothing with flame anywhere. I can hear the gas when I go through the steps i've found concerning lighting the pilot, but I don't see anything that looks like it would have an eternal flame (so to speak.)

Well, actually there is a pipe looking thingy in the trap door, with holes along it like a musical instrument. But that doesn't light.

I read that one should always keep the pilot lit because condensation can build up making it hard to light.

I'm going to have to break down and call someone but I really hate to have to do that. Sheesh, it's just a pilot light, right? 80 bucks later, it's lit.

Grumble.

The pilot light is pretty faint. Try doing all this at night time when it's dark, and only use a flashlight that you can turn off. You'll definitely be able to see a burning pilot in the dark if there is one.

Otherwise, if you are following the steps, the only suggestion I would make is that you use one of those wand style lighters that you can hold there for a while to wait for the pilot to light. I've accidentally sucked our pilot out when I was vacuuming the burners of our old beast of a boiler. The pilot lights right up again when I hold a match to it. But it's only been a minute or so that it's been out.

I do have the wand lighter. It may be that it's just playing hard to light. Maybe I'll post tonight or tomorrow that I got it!

I'll try looking tonight in the dark.

Thanks!