Baby Won't You Light My Fire...

Miley Cyrus, Milli Vanilli, Millivolt. What's the difference? 

I'll be the first to admit that I don't know everything about our homes and I have not seen everything in our homes; but after my recent experience with the radiant floor heating thermostat, it had me wondering about my gas fire place and the use of a thermostat. In theory, the thermostat for that radiant floor heating system was just an on/off switch, controlled by the temperature settings. When the room temperature dropped below a preset limit, the radiant floor system would turn 'on'; and when the temperature reached a preset upper limit, the system would turn 'off. The same should apply to our 23-year old fireplace, which utilizes a thermocouple/thermopile millivolt system to control the gas valve.

The millivolt gas valve is named after the amount of voltage the valve needs to open. Usually a manual knob is used to control a gas valve, but in a millivolt gas valve utilizes a continuously burning vertical pilot to heat a device (ie. a thermopile), which then generates a small amount of electricity. This small amount of electricity provides enough current to control a solenoid, which overcomes a spring to open the valve to control gas flow. 

My wife and I recently cleaned our gas fireplace, polished the glass, added new embers, and added black glass around the perimeter to freshen up our nearly 25-year old fireplace. I also cleaned the thermocouple and thermopile, after having to address the issue at our 24-year old rental property. Our fireplace works fine and few years ago I had installed a bluetooth switch to control the fireplace switch. The issue? Well, with bluetooth devices, usually multiple users cannot control the device. I liked the idea of a generic remote so that it was not tied to a phone and the radiant floor job had me thinking... 

I looked into a few different options and selected one that worked with a millivolt system, and had a remote that would act as a thermostat. Wherever the remote would sit, it could also control the fireplace based on a preset desired temperature. When looking a millivolt switches, there were choices. They all required either batteries or an AC outlet close to operate. For our setup, batteries were the only option, but every battery option had a fugly looking battery door. I chose the best looking option, but it still was pretty unattractive. So what did I do? I screwed the remote wall clip over the battery door. 

So what do I think? I love it! It's simple, it removes the 'smart'/frustrating as 'F' feature and brings simplicity back to this appliance. It warms my heart and office without trying to figure out which device controls the fireplace.