Eli5 How do gas ventless fireplaces work without electricity?

248 views

I have a propane powered vent free fireplace in my garage. It doesn’t get plugged in anywhere and it doesn’t take batteries. I get how the peizo works to start it but how the hell does it turn the gas valve on and off by itself? When I go from pilot light to on there is a delay to when you actually hear the gas start flowing. Then it will also click and just shut itself off sometimes.

In: 10

12 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The [Seebeck Effect]( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_effect) is how the power gets generated to operate the valve. The Voyager space probes used plutonium to generate heat to produce power via a Thermo Electric Generator TEG. This process also works in the reverse in a Peltier cooler. The little desktop refrigerators and many electronic devices use this to cool them.

You are viewing 1 out of 12 answers, click here to view all answers.