10/25/09

I have an old Lennox G12RQ3-82 furnace with a Robertshaw 7000 gas valve. Can I
Switch out this standing pilot unit with an intermittent pilot model, say a White Rogers
36E gas valve? I want to upgrade the system so that I'm not burning a pilot light
24-7 all winter.

Any thoughts would be helpful.

George

A spark ignition pilot system will work. You will need the gas valve/ignitor box/and spark ignitor pilot lite assembly. These usually come in a complete kit form with all the parts you need in one box. Both Honeywell and White Rodgers as well as RobertShaw offer complete kits I believe.

Whatever you do forget about putting together your own kit from various parts. While I am not saying a experienced HVAC mechanic cannot do that it just takes great skill and many parts books to figure what will be compatible with what and what will be UL/CSA approved.

It takes some skill to install the kits successfully and some special tools are needed to do the job correctly. In many cases it might be more adventages to contact a local HVAC service person to do the job.

A special note on propane gas.
If you are using propane and you are attempting to do this yourself be extremely careful. While Natural and Propane are both gases Propane is more sensitive to incorrect adjustments and many manufactures do not offer conversion kits for this reason for propane. Do not attempt to put a kit together for propane, only use a manufactures complete kit listed for propane use.