Gas Furnace Attic Smell

The first time you turn it on you might detect a bit of gas odor as it clears out the cobwebs and burns up the dust.

Gas furnace attic smell.

The first time your furnace is used in the winter when furnaces sit idle for months dust and debris build up. Even gas furnaces work there when you have the proper venting and alarm systems available to ensure any leaks are detected quickly. The smell of natural gas or propane gas around your gas furnace is not good. This will most likely diagnose a leaking furnace heat exchanger.

After a few seconds i could not smell it anymore and thought that maybe i was just being paranoid. When the furnace is turned on the dust gets burned off. A very significant difference indicates a large return leak. Sometimes when you first turn on the heater it can smell like gas is burning.

Run the furnace fan and check the temperature of the air going into the return air grills and in the return air duct just before the furnace. During the summer dust settles within the hvac on the heat exchanger. A burning smell is something many folks readily associate with fire and a fire in your home is something no one wants to discover. If you smell something burning it could be a furnace problem.

If the smell isn t coming from the vents it s most likely a leak at a pipe fitting or within the equipment. It likely means you have a gas leak. It could also mean you have a dead rodent in the attic somewhere. This is normal but you can cut down on the duration of this unpleasant smell by opening some windows to allow for cross ventilation to dissipate the smell quickly.

Kicking on each cycle it s possible to detect a faint odor every time your furnace kicks on. If your heat has been running and you realize there is an unusual burning smell coming from the furnace the smell can be quite disconcerting. It s normal to lose a bit of heat though if it s going through an attic duct. Natural gas used for heating is treated with sulphur to give it its distinct rotten egg smell.

The furnace has been working fine mostly just coming on at night as it is. A few days ago when i went up to the attic to take some stuff up to storage i noticed a faint natural gas odor at the top of my attic steps which are very close to the furnace. Ensure that the gas smell is coming from your air vents. When you turn on the furnace for the first time you might notice a slight gas smell while the furnace burns off the accumulated debris.

So before you call for hvac service look around and make sure you don t have a dead rodent in the attic somewhere. Our natural gas heater is in our attic. If you have a furnace in your attic then you can install almost any type of equipment in that space without compromising your safety. If your furnace smells like gas and you have ruled out the other more obvious options ensure that the smell is coming from your air vents called registers.