no electricty, but center heater is on, does that catch fire? (floor, furnaces)

[hueimo]

say for whatever reason, the electricity company shuts down the electricity, BUT the gass stays on, will that catch fire? especially whenthe central heater is on. The heater uses gas in our property. If the heater is on, but no electricity is available, does that cause gas leakage? thanks.

[studedude]

Originally Posted by hueimo

say for whatever reason, the electricity company shuts down the electricity, BUT the gass stays on, will that catch fire? especially whenthe central heater is on. The heater uses gas in our property. If the heater is on, but no electricity is available, does that cause gas leakage? thanks.

The valves that control the gas are opened by electricity. Unless there is another problen gas will not leak when electric is off.

[Barking Spider]

The gas heating unit will not work without electricity.
Having no electricity will not cause a gas leak.

[Ultrarunner]

Not all gas heaters, be it a floor furnace, wall furnace or basement central furnace require utility electricity to function.

I own a homes with all of the above and the one nice feature is all of the heating systems work when the power is out.

During the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake the power was out for 5 days... all of my neighbors that had upgraded to forced air furnaces were without heat... my old central gravity unit worked flawlessly... heat flowed to each room vent through convection.

My neighbors with the old floor furnaces and wall furnaces also had heat. The only ones left in the cold were neighbors with forced air systems...

What type of gas heating do you have?

Is there a standing pilot light?

If it's pilot-less, it won't work with the power off.

No fire hazards, no matter what type of unit you have if the powers out...

[texdav]

That is easily corrected by having a few outlets and gtas portable heaters.Then when you do have electricity it is much more efficent having central heating.

[Barking Spider]

True not all gas heating systems require electricity.
I was thinking of all gas FORCED AIR SYSTEMS, and not wall heaters or the really old gravity heaters.

Forced air system do require electricity to run the fan.

[TexasHorseLady]

All central air/heat requires electricity. (Learned the hard way when we had central propane heat and a week-long ice storm with power out for 4 days and no way to leave the farm because the drive was blocked - we now have free standing propane heaters and two other kinds of heat, and NO central heat/air.)

[Ultrarunner]

A few years ago I was remodeling a 1920's home... the home had been upgraded to central heat and air as well as electric electric cooking.

I almost took out the old double wall furnace because it was redundant and no longer used. It was the only source of heat during a prolonged ice storm shortly thereafter... the person I sold the home to was very glad to have a heater that didn't need power to work

My Grandparents would have never been caught in the same situation...

Grandma cooked on a combination white and chrome porcelain Wedgewood electric/wood range. In the summer she cooked with the electric side and in the winter with wood... her kitchen was the place everyone wanted to be...

[TexasHorseLady]

Well, we can get away with no central air because the house, built sometime between 1900 and 1930, was built for the climate, so we don't even turn on window units until late June/early July most years - in Central Texas. Could stand to be a little warmer, but that's basically just some insulating that needs to be taken care of.