Question about fireplace

[Semidevil]

so my house has a gas fireplace.

It has a lower compartment to light the pilot, it has an on/off wall swtich, and it also has a metal knob on the wall.

Question: Is it okay/safe to leave the metal knob on the wall at "On" all the time? Do people do that or do they turn it all the way off when it is not in use. Reason I ask this is that everytime I want to turn it on, I need to reach teh lower compartment and activate the pilot(which is a pain). So is it okay to leave the metal knob at "on" all the time?
leaving the knob at on and the pilot at On doesnt cause any safety issue?(gas leaking into the house or whatever)?

Question 2: If the above is okay, does leaving the pilot on all the time take a lot of gas? Will it increase my gas bill drastically?

thanks

 

[FoBoT]

i shut the main valve off during the summer and leave it on all the time during the winter when we use the gas fireplace
unless the fireplace is very old, the pilot doesn't use enough to worry about, just leave it on in the winter

 

[Sluggo]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
i shut the main valve off during the summer and leave it on all the time during the winter when we use the gas fireplace
unless the fireplace is very old, the pilot doesn't use enough to worry about, just leave it on in the winter

Yep, exactly the way we do it.