My house and my neighbors' houses are going to have our water shut off from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm this week by our Water and Wastewater District.

I called the manufacturer of the water heater and also the gas provider. They recommended changing the gas knob to either "OFF" or "PILOT". They advised that "PILOT" would be better as I wouldn't need to go through the trouble of re-lighting the pilot light.

My question is if I switch the gas knob to "PILOT" do I have to change the water heater thermostat to "PILOT LIGHTING" or can I leave it to its current setting? I have been reading through the manual and am not sure.

I have a gas water heater from 2006 so the thermostat does not have a vacation setting.

Thanks.