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The American Energy Consumer
Table 3-20.Pilot Light of Natural Gas
Furnace Off or On, Summer 1972 (number and percent of
households)
| Pilot light off or
on |
Number
(millions) |
Percent |
| All households with
central gas heat |
43.2 |
100 |
| Pilot light off in
summer |
13.2 |
31 |
| Pilot light on in
summer |
25.1 |
58 |
| Not sure |
4.9 |
11 |
| Source: Washington
Center for Metropolitan Studies' Lifestyles and Energy
Surveys. |
these 25 million households had turned off their furnace pilot
lights, the country would have saved 58 trillion Btu's of energy,
or about 1 percent of the total natural gas that households
consumed in 1972-73.
The dollar
saving per household would have been under $5. This low dollar
saving gives the consumer little incentive to have the pilot light
turned off. Also there is the inconvenience of calling the gas
company to turn the pilot light off in the spring and light it
again in the fall. If the gas company charges the household
directly for this, the charge could wipe out the dollar saving.
An ignition
type of lighter that a customer could manage alone is now being
developed. The production and the initial expense of buying and
installing such a device should be investigated.
WATER
HEATING
Water
heating accounts for eight percent of all personal energy use (see
Table 3-1 above). Most single family homes have natural gas water
heaters; one-third have electric ones. Three percent of all
households report having no hot running water at all (Table
3-21).
Table 3-21.Energy Source for Water
Heating in Single Family Homes, 1973 (percent of homes)
| Energy source for water
heating |
Percent |
| All single family
homes |
100 |
| Natural gas |
56 |
| Electricity |
31 |
| Fuel oil |
5 |
| Bottled gas |
4 |
| Other and unknown |
2 |
| None |
3 |
| Source: Washington
Center for Metropolitan Studies' Lifestyles and Energy
Surveys. |