I'm curious as to why you needed a special device to light your pilot? We fairly frequently have to re-light ours as there seems to be a draught issue blowing it out. Yes, it needs to be fixed but till then we just a nine inch match.

Well the furnace we have doesn't have a pilot to re light an we certainly can't use a match because of it. Our heater uses an electric ignition system to light the furnace. And the part that would provide the flame is called and igniter and that's what's needed.

If you have an electronic igniter there really is a chance you could light it temporarily with a naked flame, but it might not be possible if there isn't a switch or valve you can hold open till the pilot heats up. Either way the bigger problem is that these furnaces don't have a constantly burning pilot, just lighting it when its about to run, to save gas. So even if you got it running once, you would be stuck when it went out the first time.

All I can say is get it fixed before it gets too cold!

Hmmm I dunno how that would work Screwedup. I'm all screwed up now! :) Well the good thing is that the weather here in Chicago has been super nice so I haven't yet frozen my butt off :) But either way I got a friend of mine coming by to look at it tomorrow.