What Does Hvac Smell Mean For Your System?

By Author: R Adonis
Total Articles: 14
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For some people, it’s most likely the first time you’re turning on the heat, your furnace might be working fine and the heat is flowing around the house, yet is there an odor looming in your home. Not every HVAC system odor might be a cause of concern, yet these could be a sign of foreseeable trouble.

Rotten Egg Smell

Provided that there are no rotten eggs in your home, the smell of the rotten eggs or sulfur more likely indicates natural gas leak. Even if it is on its own, natural gas does not have an odor, majority of utility providers add aroma to alert people of leaks. Never take this lightly. Open windows in your home and get out of your home immediately. If possible, contact the gas company.

Musty Odor

When your home is starting to have a damp and wet feeling in the air, it can be coming from the unit’s furnace filter. If the weather conditions have been very humid, moisture may create mold on the filter itself. To correct the musty odor in your house, the simple solution is changing the filter.

Gas Smell

There are times when you turn on the heater first, this could smell ...
... like burning gas. During summer season, the dust settles within HVAC. Once the furnace is turned on, dust will get burned off. When the smell is not coming from the vents, it is most likely a leak at the pipe fitting or within the unit. You must not attempt to repair this problem. Contact your HVAC professional to make repairs and find leaks.

Oil Odor

Oil might have come in handy, yet you will not like to have oil smell in your house. At first, this could be a simple problem of clogged up air filter that requires changing. Filter becomes clogged when a lot of air, dust, and dirt pollutants are venting through. Once you’ve changed the filter and oil smell remains, red flag must be raised. This might mean that your furnace is leaking. The leaking furnaces should be shut off easily and are dangerous. If the furnace has been turned off, calling a professional is the next step.

Burnt Dust Odor

You will find dust everywhere and never think that furnaces are different. When the unit hasn’t been used all summer, the dust might settle around and inside your furnace. When this builds around the burner, the dust burns when the furnace starts to heat up. Burning dust can create odor and will leave the particles behind that create buildup. This buildup could lead to further damage of the internal parts, yet regular cleaning could prevent burning dust.

Burnt Electrical Odors

Depending on your furnace, it might smell like either plastic or metal. This might indicate that the wires are starting to melt, motors have burnt out or part of the system malfunctioned. The smells are not always calls of concern with actual furnace since there could be something in your air ducts. If something like plastic pen falls into vent and remains being heated, it’ll create burning plastic smells.

John is a content crafter at Rileyheatandair. He has keen interest in researching and blogging about anything & everything related to HVAC systems.