Pilot Light Won’t Stay Lit?

If you smell a strong gas odor anywhere in the house, do not touch any light switches, do not use your phone inside, and do not attempt to relight the pilot. Leave the home immediately, leaving the door open behind you. From outside, call Peoples Gas (TECO) at 877-832-6747 or call 911. Only after the utility clears the premises should you call Home Therapist at (813) 343-2212. A faint smell at the furnace during relighting is normal and clears in seconds. A persistent or spreading gas smell is a utility emergency, not an HVAC call.

All repairs include FREE diagnosis.

Relighting a pilot and replacing a thermocouple are maintenance tasks that require no permit. Any work involving the gas valve, gas supply line, or full furnace replacement requires permits and licensed contractors under Florida Statute 489.

• Gas valve or piping repair: Requires a gas permit from Hillsborough County Development Services and a contractor holding CFC or CGCC license. Home Therapist holds CFC1431159.
• Full furnace replacement: Requires a mechanical permit plus a gas permit. Must be performed by a CAC-licensed contractor. Home Therapist holds CAC1819196.
• Unpermitted gas work: Creates a safety hazard and a mandatory disclosure obligation at sale. Florida home sellers must disclose known material defects. Unpermitted gas work can halt a closing or require costly retroactive remediation.
• CO detector requirement: Florida Statute 553.885 requires carbon monoxide alarms within 10 feet of sleeping areas in homes with fuel-burning appliances. Any home with a standing-pilot furnace that lacks a CO detector on every floor is out of compliance with current Florida law. Home Therapist verifies CO detector presence on every gas appliance call.

Because Tampa furnaces sit dormant from roughly March through October, a short fall check in September or October prevents most emergency calls. The goal is to test the system before the first cold front, not during it.

• Turn the thermostat to HEAT and raise the setpoint 5 degrees above room temperature. Listen for the gas valve click and confirm a blue flame within 30 seconds. A pilot that fails this test in September is a minor repair before the season; the same failure in December is an emergency call with a 2-day lead time.
• Let the furnace run a full 15-minute heating cycle. A cycle that starts strong then blows cold after 5 minutes often means a marginal thermocouple cutting out from heat soak — a classic early-stage failure pattern.
• With the furnace off and cooled, use a flashlight to inspect the burner area for spider webs or debris near the pilot orifice. A can of compressed air clears most of it safely.
• Check the flue pipe for rust streaks or white calcium deposits, both signs of condensation from an oversized furnace running short cycles.
• Replace the furnace filter even if it looks clean. A clogged filter causes the heat exchanger to overheat, which trips a high-limit safety switch that looks exactly like a pilot outage from the homeowner’s perspective.