Furnace issues - pilot light won't stay lit

[Tradd]

I rent a condo built in the mid-80s. Furnace in my unit is original (landlord said he was planning on replacing it next year). It has a pilot light that stays on all the time. I didn't have furnace on for most of the fall as it was so warm (I prefer to be cold). When I turned it on just before Christmas, there was a grinding sound in the fan/blower whenever the heat came on. Unit owner had repair guy come out. Grinding sound was gone. Yesterday, I woke up with cold air coming out of the vent by my bed. Pilot light off. Landlord had repair guy out yesterday. He didn't tell me what the problem was, but it was fixed. I had heat when I got home, as well as this morning. When I got home from work today, cold air again. Fan/blower would not shut off. Pilot light not on. I had to turn the thermostat to OFF for heat, in order to get the lower to shut off. Turned it back on, and blower is going again.

Landlord has someone coming out tomorrow.

Is it dangerous for pilot light to be off overnight? I'm getting conflicting info when I google. I have a CO2 detector in the kitchen (about 16 feet from furnace room, on other side of LR). It's not going off at all. My sense of smell is kind of shot from having the flu and flonase use, so I likely wouldn't smell gas if there was any. Landlord didn't mention any thing about gas smell yesterday.

Thanks!

[Williamsmith]

Make sure the CO2 detector is working. Carbon monoxide is odorless. Try to be there when the repairman comes back and ask questions. If you have a leaking heat exchanger he is required to red tag the furnace and advise you not to heat the house until it's fixed. Look for a red tag out of service tag on the furnace. Most repairmen are pretty good about this because they can get their ass sued off of someone gets sick or dies and they don't red tag it.

[ToomuchStuff]

It really depends on how the unit is built. Years ago, furnaces such as mine, or the gravity furnaces that some still have around here, if the pilot light went out, gas was still flowing. On other appliances like a gas oven I helped rebuild, if the pilot goes out, the gas valve closes. In that case, you had to heat the thermocouple up to cherry red, so it would stay on long enough to stay at the proper temp to stay on.
Now, many furnaces are electric ignition, no pilot. There was a time between that they were part electronic and part thermocouple, but I don't have experience with them.

Do you smell rotten eggs when the blower is running but it is cold? Smell anything around the furnace? Make sure you read any directions on the furnace, as most I have seen, say to shut the gas off for x minutes, and do nothing (allowing any gas around the pilot light, or in the combustion chamber to dissipate. If you go too soon, or the gas has been running for a while, you can see an explosion back at you when you go to light it.

[Tradd]

I can't smell much right now. Sense of smell was shot after I had the flu bad a few months ago. A friend was having man issues and wanted someone to stay with her tonight so I'm at her place.