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A comment on What went wrong with the Texas power grid?. Parent comment

Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by WillPostForFood on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @11:23PM (#26162666)
How does the thermostat work? I've had the old mercury switch style thermostats before, but those work by completing a circuit, so I assumed they were dependent on power being on.
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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by gkop on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @11:55PM (#26162867)
Googling tells me it’s “a pilot millivolt system”. I guess the downside of this design is that the pilot* is always lit, consuming a certain amount of fuel. Neat old quick start guide for a similar thermostat: http://nebula.wsimg.com/b2bc334b6de3591406ddd01974f01830?Acc...

* pilot is manual piezoelectric; doesn’t require electric power

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