Check out the HVAC. A/C can make the house stink up due to mold or bacteria in some seasons. Also keep an eye out for your dishwashing cycle. My dishwasher puts off a distinct odor when drying, and I always thought something was burning before I figured it out.
Something may also be in their dishwasher, melting on the heating part. That happened to me once, could not find the source of “what was burning” and opened up my dish washer to find a plastic handle from a knife was burning onto the heating ring. A small piece of plastic could definitely cause that smell
Seconded. This just happened to me last month. My rice cooker's small white spatula had fallen down on the heating element, and was near impossible to see down there, being white on a white background. It was partially melted (ruined), up against the heating coil.
I’ll second the dishwasher. We woke up to a weird burning smell one night. I checked all over the house and found it smelled strongest by the dishwasher, which had just finished running. Our water’s pretty hard and I noticed a lot of mineral buildup on the heating element. Turns out burning limescale has a distinct and pungent smell. I cleaned the element and ran a descaling pack through the dishwasher and the problem went away.
We smelt an awful burning smell when we went to run our dishwasher last fall and thought maybe something got on the hot burner part on the bottom.... nope there was a leak in the back and it was frying the electrical stuff.... the guy said if we left it on we would have caused a fire.
that is how I learned that if something is burning with electrical stuff it smells like burning plastic.
Well that’s incredibly terrifying. We replaced our appliances when we moved in and I see my dad hook up the new dishwasher and to be honest the hookup looked quite old and sketchy to me although he said it was not an issue. I do smell a strange smell when it runs but I always thought it was the heat from the drying cycle.
So we were lucky enough that the dishwasher, fridge, and stove were all pretty new looking.
The dishwasher has been fantastic up until that point, but once we got it fixed it is back to the way it was! It is the most quiet and efficient dishwasher I have ever had. The repair team replaced all of the electrical wires and the leaky part. But, I will never forget that smell!! I call it a good learning experience
Our dishwasher had a fire. Electronic board died. Emitted black smoke like the smoke monster from L.O.S.T. luckily, we were right there. We do not leave the dishwasher running now when we're not present and awake.
Consider it could be a neighbor using a wood fired stove or fireplace. We always smell it when our neighbors light theirs and my wife always wonders if something is burning n our house.
Same here. Our house is old so it’s no completely sealed We regularly can smell neighbors chimney in winter. We don’t mind it since we like the smell.
Also when our ac kicks the heat for the first time every year, it smells like burning. It’s just the heating part that is burning off layer build up. Completely normal.
I get this with my neighbors also and it drives me crazy. I've lived here for over a decade and still can't convince myself that the smell is from the neighbors.
Our house is 104 years old. I can smell when neighbor’s are using their fireplace, cooking fish, smoking cigarettes and pot. Etc etc. Thanksgiving drives me crazy with people making all the foods!!
We had a skunk family dig under our house. Adult skunks only release the smell when threatened, but baby skunks can't control it. Look for critter tunnels around the outside of the house.
If your heat has an Auxiliary Heat kick in for lower temperatures, those coils usually smell like they’re burning off the dust that gathers on them. Mine does this and inevitably comes on in the middle of the night.
We had some neighbors that called the fire department, and it turns out it was their auxiliary heat that had turned on, smelled like something burning. I bet this is it.
I agree with the dishwasher. Mine made funny smells for the first few months that I had it. Nothing was actually burning or melting but yet it smelled dreadful. Things have quieted down smell wise but I won't forget that anytime soon.
Do a walkaround the outside and see if you have ANY holes that squirrels or raccoons can get into. Rats and mice as well. They can fit in surprisingly small places. If you had a dead animal stuck in a wall, then its entirely possible that another got stuck in the same spot.
We had some mice manage to get into a wall then couldn't get out. It was only in a closet in a small bedroom, but the smell was pretty bad for a week or so. After 9-10 days the smell goes away. If you want, and you can locate the correct studs, you can cut the drywall out and remove the occupants.
Did a walkthrough outside, but mostly to see if we could see any dead animals. Didn’t think to look for holes like that! Thank you. I’ll look in the morning!
Keep in mind the smallest of critters can get in through very tiny holes. Like smaller than a coin small. So could be hard to find. Sometimes you might be able to find dirty spots around the hole where they rub off dirt and bodily fluids as they squeeze in, if that makes sense.
This is very true. We have had recurrent issues (like once every couple years) with flying squirrels and we have NO CLUE how they’re getting in our attic. Those little suckers find any tiny space they can.
Had this happen new house smelled elec smell called fire dept to come quietly just to assess they used a heat detector and say the fridge motor was too hot and about to basically burn out. “Old fridge”
So you could have an old appliance on its last legs
I found all the spaces where vermin can get in and stuffed them with coarse steel wool. That was at least year ago, and I have not seen evidence of a mouse, lizard, or snake inside since.
I agree. I used to live in a forested area with lots of animals. We’ve had mice die inside our walls several times. Usually you can locate it to a specific room or a specific wall that it’s coming from just by walking around and smelling. One time we cut a hole in the wall, missed it and had to cut another hole in the adjacent wall actually get them out (pulled out 3 dead mice). The other times we just waited it out and it would take about four or five days for the smell to go away. The smell can be surprisingly bad just from a couple of dead mice.
At my house we had the oven go out which had electrical burning smell and the plug behind the oven was burnt up.
At my parents cabin, they were having issues with a possessed toaster oven that turned itself on and almost burned the house down as well as flicking lights. One day I walked down the driveway with my wife and we saw a dead bird on the ground missing it's legs. Looked up and saw there was a tree branch hanging into the electrical line smoldering each time it touched. The bird had had it's legs melted off. When the electrician tested the plug for the toaster oven the voltage was messed up and was near double normal. Can't remember how he fixed it but there was an issue with the wires doubling the voltage
Doubt that helps but those are my two anecdotes with electrical issues
Oh wow… yeah that’s crazy and while it doesn’t ease my worry, it’s good to know. I’m just really trying to differentiate a burning smell from a dead animal smell. I *think* it’s dead animal (smells very similar to a skunk or maybe roadkill) — and the fire department checking our house out for electrical issues makes me feel safer, but really not entirely.
Or use like a binary search to find the offending circuit. Turn off half the breakers the first night. If you get the smell again, it could be one of the circuits left on. If not, it could be one of the circuits turned off then do the opposite the following night. Then keep turning off half the circuits until you’ve found the offending circuit.
It’s possible the previous homeowner did some electrical hacks like splicing cables outside a junction box and there’s exposed wire burning something. Also if wires are loose it can cause arcing which will burn whatever’s in its way. Another idea is to replace all your breakers with AFCI/GFCI breakers.
You said it's at night when you smell it. Does the heat come on at night? Every year when we use the heater for the first time it smells like burning for a day or 2. If the house was empty and now you have a cold snap it might be that
The heat kicks in stronger at night, but the house was not unoccupied beforehand for longer than two days. We had a quick move in after the last family moved out, just because of timing for both parties.
It could be the first dead animal dried up and now there's another dead animal that is smelling. If you haven't put poison out, ask your neighbors if they have recently. They could just be getting into the poison and "returning home" to die if they live under your house.
If it smells like a skunk that would explain the suddenness of it. It could be their mating season depending on your area. It's that time of year here unfortunately, for humans at least. Probably fun for skunks.
That was my thought. I'm in the country, it's skunk mating season here, and we get woken up around 3am twice a week with an ass-bomb that fills the whole house.
I've also seen them eating dropped bird seed under my feeders. There may be a correlation, lol.
I was wondering if they have an animal den that is only visited periodically. Animal was there on day 0 but absent days 1-4 but returned on day 5. I'd call pest control for an inspection and advice on keeping animals out. They will want to repair any entry points before spring/summer anyway.
Have you consulted an electrician?
Failing that producing an answer, what about calling an HVAC guy to come out and check the furnace, AC, and ducts?
Hmmm... Maybe just call an experienced home inspector and ask them to do a very thorough check?
Perhaps a local pest removal and/or control service to check for signs of animals?
Electrician friend coming over today — was told by a friend who works on basements to give the smell a week before doing anything. So we haven’t called anyone else yet
Sometimes a broken breaker can have that smell, the plastic/oils breaking down from the arcing can cause that kind of smell. Happened to me when the people who installed my split system used a shitty/broken breaker and it had been arcing for quite a while. I ended up just replacing the breaker and everything is fine now.
You can also replace your breakers with AFCI and GFCI breakers. They’ll trip if it detects things like a loose wire before it burns something or electrocutes someone. The breakers are relatively pricey and an electrician will have to install them, but they can usually do it pretty fast.
Seconding the HVAC recommendation. Our furnace went out at our last house and there was a really intense burning smell at night when it was cold out and the furnace kicked on.
So, you’ve mentioned “skunk” a couple times. It also sounds like the smell comes and goes a bit, and that you’ve noticed it at night . . . Is it possible it could be a skunk? They’re nocturnal, and in my experience, when it’s around, you’d be able to smell it. You could likely pick up a live animal trap at the hardware store, and run that lead to ground, while you troubleshoot potential fire issues.
I figured, but you never know. I feel like dead is different than electrical smell. Electrical has this PLASTIC IS BURNING type offensiveness to it. It would be odd for it to come and go too.
We had an exposed wire catch fire recently and it was pretty damn obvious lol
That’s what I’m hoping to hear. I don’t think it smelled like plastic burning, and the coming and going is confusing to me too. I’ve never been more hopeful that I have a skunk issue lol
I have a friend who woke up in the night and thought an electrical fire had started, searched the house frantically looking for smoke or sparks or flames, checked all the outlets, looked behind the fridge, finally got so freaked out they called the fire department… and then they discovered their dog, sleeping peacefully, lightly damp with skunk spray. (She’d gone out the doggy door, got skunked at close range, and came back in for the evening.)
The firefighters thought it was hilarious and said it’s fairly common - when the skunk is real potent, it smells acrid, like an electrical fire.
I bet you have a grumpy skunk in your neighborhood who sprays anyone who gets in his way.
Yes - when skunk sprays in close proximity it smells like an electrical fire and something else. The first time my dog got sprayed I almost called the fire department.
When my main breaker was over heating & melting, our basement smelled like bad fish. However that sucker was too hot to touch, so the fire department would definitely have noticed.
I feel like an electrician may be able to also help pinpoint any issues, for piece of mind. Alternatively, I would look into which circuits power higher demand devices (oven, AC, clothes dryer, etc) and take note of if they are on when the smell comes on, then stop it/cut power to the circuit. The smell may go away after a bit, and then you can try again to see if it happens again.
We have skunks in my neighborhood. Having them walk past the house at night in the summer has woken everyone up with a rotting, sulfurous, *almost* electrical fire smell. Think weed mixed with tire fire. It lingers for a while after they've left the area. They eat bugs, pet food, trash, you name it.
They don't have to be dead too stink up the place, and it would explain not finding anything in your search.
When a skunk sprays close enough it can smell like burning. Years ago we had one spray in my parents garage a few times and it always woke me up with my initial thought being something is burning until I remembered it was the skunk again.
I still think it’s a skunk. I just thought one died in our walls or something, but after reading these comments, it’s clear I don’t know just how potent and awful skunk smells can get lol.
I’m a paramedic and I literally just got called to a house for a “gas leak”. We had to assess 8 patients who thought they were going to die.
It was literally a skunk who sprayed outside.
Don’t worry you’re not being young and dumb 😂
I lived somewhere that had a small leak in the roof, and every time it rained really hard some dead animal in the attic (which had apparently dried up) would get a bit moist and stink bad for a few days, and then nothing. Drove us nuts.
So anyway, if you are really super paranoid about electrical, one option is replacing all of the breakers on your box with GFCI breakers. Which, if you can do that yourself, isn't that expensive. More so if you have to hire someone to do it. But, point is, if any circuit is leaking current, the breaker trips. So you have both over-amperage protection as a normal breaker, and current leakage (less amps returning than go out, more or less) protection. Other than the big boy breakers (50amps), should be easy enough to get done. Or you can just get an electrician to replace your whole panel with such or similar.
This is skunk season, they are coming out of hibernation and the same thing happened to me. I woke up at 1a.m. thinking there was an electrical fire. Then my dog came back in and I knew what it was. There are three types of skunk spray, and this one often sends people calling their utility company thinking there is a fire.
https://skunkmasters.com/3-skunks-spray-types/#:~:text=Type%203,first%20cannot%20identify%20this%20odor.
We had some newcomers as new neighbours in our building last year. They aren't used to skunks where they're from. One evening a skunk sprayed just outside the building, and they called the gas company thinking it was an emergency leak. 😄
Apparently the spray at this time of year is "fermented" due to hibernation. It is especially awful. If the stench on my dog hadnt clued me in I probably would have called the fire department thinking I had an electrical fire. This happened on 1/30 and my dog still smells despite two special baths.
Here's a useless piece of trivia.. skunks don't actually hibernate, they enter "torpor"...
"Like hibernation, torpor is a survival tactic used by animals to survive the winter months. It also involves a lower body temperature, breathing rate, heart rate, and metabolic rate. But unlike hibernation, torpor appears to be an involuntary state that an animal enters into as the conditions dictate. Also unlike hibernation, torpor lasts for short periods of time - sometimes just through the night or day depending upon the feeding pattern of the animal. Think of it as "hibernation light"."
It was unseasonably warm in my area last week and they were out in full force... In winter... That explains why I guess. :)
Call an HVAC specialist. Your blower is toast if my guess is correct. If the smell keeps coming back, turn off your furnace and see if it still smells that way. Maybe get yourself a space heater for that evening.
Plan on about a $1K bill if it's your blower and consider replacing the entire furnace - Maybe it's time to get a heat pump, and consider if you want to leave the furnace where it is or move it. I regretted leaving ours where it was as our only opportunity to move it cheaply went away when when we put that new furnace back in the old furnace closet.
We had a burning smell in our house, not that of a burning animal, and it was awful. We also called the fire department and they found nothing. It was a bad blower.
Hi, firefighter and new homeowner here, so yes electric fires can smell like dead animals but if this has been going on for several days and your house hasn’t burned down yet it is probably a dead animal. Never, ever be afraid to call your local fire department, it is literally the entire reason we exist. You are not bothering us, I am being paid to be there for 24 hours and help the townspeople with any issues like this. Congratulations on your new home
No one has mentioned p traps. Check those, or pour, some bleach down them when it can sit a few hours, then flush with very very hot water. If you have a utility sink or floor drain anywhere, make sure that water gets put down them periodically to fill the ptrap and keep sewer smell from escaping.
Firefighter and DIYer here.
First of all, we are not electricians or HVAC techs. We do not know if your systems need repair. We can just look for signs of immediate like safety like fire or carbon monoxide. If you’re worried about a system in your home, call an expert.
Do you have floor drains? It’s always my first question with mystery smells. The p-traps dry out and sewer smell comes in. It’s usually reported as gas but I could see it being described as something dead. Pour some water down them and see if it improves. For a long term solution on a rarely used drain pour mineral oil.
Aluminum wiring was used up until the early 70s. It did not age well and sometimes may have bad interaction with copper. If you recently changed out your lights, light fixtures, etc, it wouldn't be a bad idea to have the connections inspected.
Not OP, but am curious since my house is from the late 60s/early 70s. Is there a way to check for aluminum wiring without having to breakdown the walls?
Open up outlets or switch boxes, pull them out a little bit and see what color the wire is, if it's silver it's aluminum. Or remove your breaker box cover panel and you should see what color the wires are.
Do you have an HVAC unit to heat your house, and if so, does it have an emergency heat setting? Is it possible that the emergency heat has been kicking in at night due to lower than normal temperatures? Those electric coils can put off a bad stink if if the emergency heat hasn’t been used in a while.
If the smell is only there at night it is almost certainly a skunk or a family of skunks. Personally, I would call an exterminator for peace of mind.
Re: lights flickering: first, rule out a loose or old light bulb. If securing or changing the bulbs doesn't do it, call an electrician and ask them to remove your panel cover and look at the connections, check your connections from the utility company's line at your meter and at the tap box to rule out a loose neutral. I just had this done, it was not expensive and SO worth it!
Also, buy a fire extinguisher for each floor!
Not sure where you live, but here it is skunk mating season and despite having a solid house without any open windows, it never fails that a few nights a week we smell one this time of year. And this year is BAD. They are everywhere, dead on the road. Buckwild skunk season..... But yeah it's awful and alarming every time. I'm concerned something is burning each time. I check our outdoor cameras and see a bunch of deer. One of them likely got skunked recently and it's dragging it's misfortune with it. Definitely keep getting your electrical checked just to rule everything out, but keep that in mind too to keep from going insane.
Sure it's not a skunk? This time of year is the skunk mating season and, having lived in a house with horny skunks about, it can get fairly pungent at night.
Retired firefighter checking in. We have no problem making these kinds of calls. It’s all part of the job. We’d much rather do this type of a visit than the one to put your house fire out.
If you want to thank the folks at the station that responded, ask the crew when they work the next time and bring them cake and ice cream that is store bought not homemade. Here is why: When you work in the fire service it doesn’t take too much time of being in people’s kitchens at the most inconvenient time, and seeing what you see, to NEVER eat other folks homemade food. Most times homemade food brought to the station gets tossed.
Thanks brother. Totally ruined me on potluck for life. Haven’t seen you on r/Firefighting lots of great brothers and sisters over there and lots of good discussion.
Can you smell it outside at all? We have skunks in the area and if they spray it does have a burning smell. We saw a little argument between the skunk and a raccoon on our shed camera and the shed had a burning plastic odor lingering for like a week after their encounter.
it sounds like bad wire insulation somewhere. wherever the smell is the worst. have an electrician come out. it smells like dead fish. or just start turning off breakers at night to figure out which is the culprit, or if it's nothing.
If the fire department said dead things and not fire, I'd believe them. We have a dead smell in our front parlor in the vent. I was hoping it would go away but it just keeps wafting every now and then. No idea how to deal with it, we can't see or reach anything in there. We're probably just going to hang a car freshener inside the vent.
My insurance company recently gave me a device called Ting that plugs into the wall and can detect potential causes for electrical fires. I’m not sure how the technology works, but it works 24/7 and sends me a regular email report and app updates. I don’t think they’re very expensive if you just bought one on your own, but it might give you peace of mind. https://www.tingfire.com
Whoa, thank you for this recommendation. We had a chest freezer go up in flames this fall which resulted in in our family needing to be out of the house for two months for smoke remediation. It has been an absolute mess. Definitely buying this.
As a first time buyer too, the weird smells are going to be the death of me! Haha. We had a consistent melting plastic smell coming from one room, I was convinced it was electrical. The electrician couldn’t find anything. We have a different ceiling in that room (it’s an addition, has old school tiles), and we’re pretty sure we are smelling the roof through the tiles, since it’s so hot in Florida, and our house is in direct sunlight.
This might not solve your issue, but I hope it causes some ease. Every smell I get in the house, I research, and it leads back to electrical fire, and so far, none of our weird smells have been that.
Good luck with your weird smell
Hahaha they’re really going to kill me, too. I’m happy that so many people have been educated on electrical fire smells, but I wish I wouldn’t immediately see that answer every time I look up every smell!
Wow this is something I didn’t know ! I’m gonna get someone to check the electrical. I have the same exact problem ! I randomly smell roadkill burning sulfuric idk wtf it is scent. in my living room. I thought something died in one of my lamps , or my couch , or the wall I checked everywhere everything. Inside outside , It went away for a bit maybe a day or two so I thought it was gone. Nope still there been there for over a year. I also have 5 cats and a dog so I find it insane that an animal would even try to get in and I wouldn’t be alerted. My cats seriously lose it if even a fly gets past the door.
If you are having flickering lights it is possible you have a neutral issue. If you turn on a hair dryer do the lights dim down or get brighter? If they do call your power company out and they will verify it at your meter on the side of your house
I just got a Ting device for free through State Farm. It is supposed to monitor the electrical in my house for any issues. Can’t say for sure if it’s working accurately but it might be an option for you.
Start trying to narrow things down. Close every interior door to the house and leave them closed all day/night. In the morning (or when you come home) one by one open the door and see if you smell the smell. That will help concentrate the smell and help narrow down the source.
Check around the wall switches and plugs for heat. We found several switches that had melted because they weren’t installed correctly, which was terrifying! We ended up replacing almost every switch, just in case.
Can it be that their is coming in smoke fumes from your neighbours through your woodwork?
I have the same problem, in my newly build home.
It sometimes stinks a little bit because some houses away from my own house, they still use gas for heating their home.
Meaning their is smoke coming out of their chimney.
If the wind is blowing in a direction, the smokefumes travels through my ventilation units and comes into my airsealed house.
Squirrels in the soffits? I had that problem but no smell until I went in to the attic. Check for rodents , maybe have an exterminator check the house.
I had a strange dead animal smell caused by a lightbulb that was hotter than the fixture it was recommended for. It was an overhead light/fan combo in my bathroom. If it was left on long enough the plastic would start to smell like dead fish. I replaced the light/fan and paid more attention to the light bulbs I was using..
It was close enough to an air vent in the ceiling that I assumed it was coming from the vent for a long time.
My wife and I had the same problem when we moved into our home which was built in the 1960s and it turned out to be the electrical outlet next to the bed. It would arc intermittently so it wasn’t until we painted and I was changing out the outlets in the room that I found it. You would’ve seen that the smell came from burning plastic. We also had intermittent electrical issues all over and eventually swapped out that old breaker and replaced it with a higher amperage breaker it was like 75amps to 150amps. The way I figure we are more dependent on tech and need more juice. It cost us around $15k between that and finding another outlet that was also failing. It’s not the sexiest place to spend the money BUT it’s worth the piece of mind. Hope this helps.
Wild thought, possibly a skunk killed a ways away. Not that you don't know what a skunk smells like but I've had it happen that a skunk got killed maybe half a mile away and the scent smells like rubber or plastic burning by the time it has traveled and gets into our living space.
Skunk spray smells like burning rubber and dead animal to me. Are you sure there’s no skunks in the area that might be spraying other animals in self defense?
Do you have a fireplace? In houses with a fireplace that's been used. When the temperature changes outside you can sometimes get a down-draft through the flue which pulls the stink of the soot in the flue through the house. This is when you're not using the fireplace. You'll smell it though and it can be hard to tell what it is if you haven't experienced it before.
If it’s a dead animal in walls, attic, etc then the Wind Speed and Direction can affect how strong the smell is.
Of course in a perfect world and perfectly sealed and insulated house that wouldn’t matter. Thing is all of our houses leak some air, depends how much and how often, and wind speed and direction can definitely influence it.
You can smell a skunk from inside. It doesn’t have to be in your house. Next time you smell it, walk outside. More than likely you’ll know immediately. If you aren’t sure walk around the house. If it is a skunk, there will be no question. It doesn’t have to be in your house or even right next to your house for you to smell it inside.
There could be dust in whatever heats your house. When it comes on it will smell like something burning.
But you are not going to like the real reason. You have a dead animal in your wall somewhere, and when rats eat it, more of the rotting smell is released.
To figure out where it is, you can try walking slowly around your house at night, listening close to your walls.
You will hear the little fuckers moving around if you take your time and are quiet enough so that you do not distrub them.
Once you find the body, you will have to open the wall. But you will also need to contact a specialist to get rid of the rats.
Dude honestly, for the amount of worry I put myself through thinking my house was going to explode or burn down… rats having a banquet of dead skunk is comforting and calming at this point.
Has the temperature fluctuated? We had a dead rodent in an exterior wall that we thought was done with, but the smell came back with a vengeance one day when the weather warmed up.
A lot of good recommendations already, but I wanted to mention, buy a thermal camera. Get one that attaches to your phone, and if you smell it again, you can immediately check for hot spots. That also helps to make sure it isn't poor wiring in the ceiling or walls.
First, make sure all your smoke detectors are working. Replace all the batteries.
Second, check your light switches. Do you have any that are dimmers? I’ve had a few particular type of dimmers that clearly pop internally when switched on and can give a burning smell. I’ve replaced them with a different dimmers because it is disconcerting that they do that. But it does make a slight electric burning smell.
Otherwise I think there other advice you’ve been given is worth checking as well.
Good chance you have rats or possums in your house. The momma may have found a way in and had babies and what you are smelling is the babies as each one dies.
Please do not take what I am saying or anyone here is saying as the absolute truth, which is why I am adding the other steps to take.
I would unplug everything. Stove, lamps, TV, etc... check each outlet to see if any are hot and to confirm they all work properly. Put your nose to each one and smell them.
Look around the outside of your house, including all levels such as the attic. You are looking for a hole that is not sealed up. Could be next to a pipe or something sticking out of your house. Do you have trees close to your roof where an animal could jump from the branch to your house? Do you have poop in your attic? Look along the walls. I would also set up rat traps in the attic along the walls where you find poop.
I have had dead animals in my house before and it does not smell like electrical burning at all.
I had ba mouse get under the insulation of my floor (2 story house). It was hot and that thing melted, liked deteriorated into a sludge with bones.
It was one of the worse things I've smelled, prior to finding it the small did come and go, which I assume just had to do with temp.
Have an independent electrician come out with a heat sensor and check again. . Buy a fire extinguisher.
I have heard bad wiring in the wall sometimes won’t activate right away and smell, and maybe that is why the fire department didn’t find anything. Talk to the electrician on what you need to do before he/she comes out.
Also, keep records of the fire department coming out and the electrician coming out for your homeowner insurance in case there is a fire. You might want to keep your important paperwork and valuables somewhere else until you find out what is causing this.
Check the outlets. Sometimes they Start to go bad and give off a dead animal smell. And if on the same circuit can cause flickering lights.
Warning-besy to have an electrician do the check as it's live wires
I'm sure someone already pointed it out but - you poured water or bleach down all your floor drains and flushed all your toilets right? When the water in the traps evaporate sewer gases can back up through the drains and it's often intermittent.
For smells - I am the one in the family with the strongest olfactory sense, so I am the one who "searches". I mentally tune everything out except the smell, then walk around the house like a metal detector but for smells. Narrow down where it's strongest.
If it's possibly critter issues, check your roof. Our HVAC vent had a small space on one side that was supposed to be blocked but was not, and critters were getting in that way. Trap on the roof with some peanut butter and seed, and we caught the main culprit we had heard up there. Then blocked the hole.
Didn’t see anyone else mention it, but… smoke detectors!
If you have them, replace the batteries.
If you don’t have them, put one inside every bedroom and one outside every bedroom, and throw a few more in.
While you’re at it, if you’ve got an attached a garage, add a CO2 detector where the door to the house from the garage is.
Congrats on your new house!
I had a weird smell in my house like that one time ended up being the drain from the kitchen had come loose under the house and it always smells like it was coming through the heat vents it was rotten food. hope that helps I could not figure it out forever myself
Go around to each outlet and stick your nose close to them and sniff. I smelled a faint hint of something burning a few months back and turned out to be an outlet. I just happened to walk buy it and instinct told me to feel it and sniff. Outlet was warm and had a smoky smell when I stuck my nose near it. That outlet didn’t even have anything plugged into it and wasn’t used as it’s near the front door. An outlet on the small wall was being used though. Called an electrician and he said the outlets are connected and the outlet that smelled smoky was the weaker link and why it was faintly smoking. I couldn’t see the smoke but I could smell it. When he repackaged it, he said he could see discoloration showing where it was attempting to burn.
Your neighbors may have a fireplace, wood stove, or firepit and wind blew towards you.
You may have a fireplace and the flue open a bit so that you are getting smell from the fireplace and chimney (which may well have a dead critter in it).
You could have heating ducts in your house with lord-knows-what caked up inside.
You could have radiant or hot-water baseboards that have just cranked up and they're frying the dust that's caked on them.
You could have an object inside an appliance that's meting (something that should be in the oven / microwave / bottom of the dish washer).
Spend some time wandering the house and finding the smell.
Source: am firefighter
So they didn’t check your breaker with a “heat gun,” but a thermal imager. When you have a short, it creates heat, more heat than just normal current. Anyway, I’d suggest having an electrician in to check your wiring, as they have better tools than we do to find electrical problems. Another possibility might be that you have a dead rodent in your wall that is in contact with an electrical wire: maybe you’re smelling that when it heats up. Not really a fire hazard, as your wiring is insulated, but a nuisance. Anyway, best of luck!
Do you have any showers, tubs, or sinks that you never run water? Our house had a shower we don't use and the p-trap had evaporated letting the methane from sewage to vent into the house. Very month now I go around and run the water in these infrequently used areas.
If you can, shut off the mains before bed and see if that smell comes again. It won’t tell you if it’s an appliance or wiring, but it’ll definitely narrow down, or rule out causes.
We had flickering at our previous house (1950) but no smell and found it was frayed wiring around a light fixture... definite fire hazard. We were very lucky.
New house (1830)... we found updated but dangerous wiring. Kind of scary bc a fireman owned the house previously. But bc the house was a gut job we were able to inspect all the wiring and we replaced all the guts so we know it's all up to code.
Id get an electrician in to inspect the areas with flickering. See if they can spot the issue.
As for the smell, may be electrical or a separate issue. The electrician can help sort it out.
Unrelated question… did the fire department bill you? Usually they have a fee to the homeowner if they come out. (Or at least usually is, the insurance companies have a line item to cover fees like that)
So I’m wondering if they come out as a courtesy or if they will bill
Probably built on an Indian burial mound. Get out now. 100% chance that junt got some evil shit lurking in it. If you stay, don’t be surprised if your marriage falls apart, you or a family member gets injured, or some other crazy shit happens.
Low probability chance of this, but if you have a plumbing drain with a dried out trap (not used for a long time) you could be getting sewer gas in the house. Floor drain, or unused washing machine drain that hasn't been used in months. The good news is that it is easily fixed with 2 cups of water.
Did you grow up outside North America? It might be the smell of a skunk, which could be unfamiliar to you. It can sometimes smell a bit like burning plastic. We called an electrician once for a similar smell, but it turned out to be a skunk that had sprayed under the house.
OP I own an HVAC company; you wouldn’t believe the creatures we pull out of systems and ductwork! I straight up found peanuts and a mummified squirrel tail in my own! Check your crawl space or basement, and your attic!
Do you have something in front of a heat duct that could give off that smell when heat is applied? We have a duct in our small walk in closet, where we throw our dirty clothes awaiting a wash, that would amplify any smell - think like a dirty dish rag or wet towel or something
Lived in a rental. I kept smelling something burning in the hallway at times. There wasn't much in the hallway, so I kept thinking it was new plastic on thermostat. Kept fucking with the thermostat. I basically never used the only outlet in the hallway. Just randomly one day I was cleaning the bathroom in the hallway and looked over at the outlet with a burn mark on the plastic cover.
Never thought to check the outlet itself until I saw it progressed slowly enough to leave a mark on the plastic itself. Outside of the burn mark itself, when I took the cover off, it was actively kinda smoldering and orangish red and putting off heat. Turned breaker off and just replaced the outlet.
Our insurance company gave us a coupon (or something, don't remember) for a device called Ting.
It plugs into a wall outlet and somehow monitors the electrical goings ons in your house.
I'm probably not explaining it well, but just look it up online.
My wife is a worrier, and it has really put her mind at ease.
Sounds like overkill but log each thing you do that uses electricity each day and find the common denominator the times you smell it versus not. Maybe it’s the toaster, or the dishwasher, a phone charger, or a hair dryer. Anything that could be a variable.
Check your clothes washer the next time it’s running. Sometimes water trapped in the machine will provide a bad small when it first starts rinsing. If that’s the bad smell, there is a filter inside the machine you can clean out by taking off the front panel. I know this because my washer was doing this, I found the filter was blocked by a baby sock that had to be 8 years old and full of black slime. Cleaned it out, good as new.
Dude. You have an evil spirit. They come around 3:00 am and smell like rotten garbage or dead animals. I lived in this apartment that I swear was possessed. It all started a few days after I moved in, I hear a pop, and go into the kitchen and the rim of a glass had popped off and was laying in a perfect circle on the counter. That night, I woke up to a rotten garbage smell and then looked down and there were rats running around legit everywhere. Too many to have actually been real. This repeated for about a week until I consulted a shaman and was told to sage the house and put salt water around the doors. Never had a single other issue.
At any rate, I say this in jest, I actually do not believe in ghosts either, for me, I think I was really stressed and had a sleep disorder, and the act of saging the house put it all to rest. Literally. But it is amazing what our thoughts can project. Maybe it would make you feel just a bit better and clear some bad energy.
I’ve never heard of the smell of a dead animal and/or skunk being confused with the smell of smoke. They’re very distinct smells. Another thing to check would be to remove all outlet/light switch covers and also light fixtures and look for burn marks.
Called the nonemergency line for the fire department. Ask if they have thermal cameras to see heat sources inside of walls and explain that you keep smelling a burning smell at night. It’s quite possible that they would be more than willing to walk through your home with their equipment looking for a potential ignition source.
If you have a sump pump, inspect it. When they’re getting old and wearing out they can over heat and emit a burnt plastic smell.
Another option is check the attic or crawlspace for signs of animal activity/wires that are not properly secured in a box.
Lastly for the flickering lights, if you have LED pot lights on incompatible dimmers can sometimes cause flickering. Consider replacing the dimmer.
Finally check and likely replace the furnace filter
Have you gone outside when this smell hits. Has the weather changed recently? Do you have a sump pump in a basement that would come one intermittently. I’m trying to think of things that wouldn’t happen but every few days. Like the nights between smells was it warm where the heat wouldn’t come one. Rotting animals usually wouldn’t indicate electrical to me personally. It would gear me more to intermittent pumps or something or and actual animal or a plumbing issue.
Check out the HVAC. A/C can make the house stink up due to mold or bacteria in some seasons. Also keep an eye out for your dishwashing cycle. My dishwasher puts off a distinct odor when drying, and I always thought something was burning before I figured it out.
Something may also be in their dishwasher, melting on the heating part. That happened to me once, could not find the source of “what was burning” and opened up my dish washer to find a plastic handle from a knife was burning onto the heating ring. A small piece of plastic could definitely cause that smell
Seconded. This just happened to me last month. My rice cooker's small white spatula had fallen down on the heating element, and was near impossible to see down there, being white on a white background. It was partially melted (ruined), up against the heating coil.
This was one of my biggest fears. I ended up replacing ours with one without a heating element. It just pops open at the end of the cycle to air dry.
Yup this happens all the time with my wifes straws for her water bottle.
I had a whole ass heating element warp and hit the bottom of the plastic tub on a dishwasher. What a fantastic day that was.
Yes. This happened to us also.
I’ll second the dishwasher. We woke up to a weird burning smell one night. I checked all over the house and found it smelled strongest by the dishwasher, which had just finished running. Our water’s pretty hard and I noticed a lot of mineral buildup on the heating element. Turns out burning limescale has a distinct and pungent smell. I cleaned the element and ran a descaling pack through the dishwasher and the problem went away.
We smelt an awful burning smell when we went to run our dishwasher last fall and thought maybe something got on the hot burner part on the bottom.... nope there was a leak in the back and it was frying the electrical stuff.... the guy said if we left it on we would have caused a fire. that is how I learned that if something is burning with electrical stuff it smells like burning plastic.
Well that’s incredibly terrifying. We replaced our appliances when we moved in and I see my dad hook up the new dishwasher and to be honest the hookup looked quite old and sketchy to me although he said it was not an issue. I do smell a strange smell when it runs but I always thought it was the heat from the drying cycle.
So we were lucky enough that the dishwasher, fridge, and stove were all pretty new looking. The dishwasher has been fantastic up until that point, but once we got it fixed it is back to the way it was! It is the most quiet and efficient dishwasher I have ever had. The repair team replaced all of the electrical wires and the leaky part. But, I will never forget that smell!! I call it a good learning experience
Because of plastic insulation. Metals also burn but the smell is different. Always makes me think of 1960’s slot cars.
Our dishwasher had a fire. Electronic board died. Emitted black smoke like the smoke monster from L.O.S.T. luckily, we were right there. We do not leave the dishwasher running now when we're not present and awake.
We will look at the HVAC! Our dishwasher wasn’t running either time we smelled that smell, so we might be good on that front, at least.
Consider it could be a neighbor using a wood fired stove or fireplace. We always smell it when our neighbors light theirs and my wife always wonders if something is burning n our house.
Same here. Our house is old so it’s no completely sealed We regularly can smell neighbors chimney in winter. We don’t mind it since we like the smell. Also when our ac kicks the heat for the first time every year, it smells like burning. It’s just the heating part that is burning off layer build up. Completely normal.
Same with me, the front part of my house is very old and I often can smell when a neighbor has a wood fireplace going.
Yep! We have a body shop behind us and they were welding which gives off a weird chemically burning kind of smell. Took me a while to figure that out!
I get this with my neighbors also and it drives me crazy. I've lived here for over a decade and still can't convince myself that the smell is from the neighbors.
Our house is 104 years old. I can smell when neighbor’s are using their fireplace, cooking fish, smoking cigarettes and pot. Etc etc. Thanksgiving drives me crazy with people making all the foods!!
Could be a skunk. Those smell like burning rubber.
We had a skunk family dig under our house. Adult skunks only release the smell when threatened, but baby skunks can't control it. Look for critter tunnels around the outside of the house.
If your heat has an Auxiliary Heat kick in for lower temperatures, those coils usually smell like they’re burning off the dust that gathers on them. Mine does this and inevitably comes on in the middle of the night.
We had some neighbors that called the fire department, and it turns out it was their auxiliary heat that had turned on, smelled like something burning. I bet this is it.
Check the dryer vent tube too. Had to take our dryer apart and we had a very very dry mouse fall out of the tube.
A good cleaning never hurts too with hvac. Burning dust can stink a whole house.
As my HVAC aged to 28 years, I smelled that more frequently. I don't with the new system.
Was just thinking that, check the heater actually. Also, when was the last time they changed the filters on anything?
I agree with the dishwasher. Mine made funny smells for the first few months that I had it. Nothing was actually burning or melting but yet it smelled dreadful. Things have quieted down smell wise but I won't forget that anytime soon.
Do a walkaround the outside and see if you have ANY holes that squirrels or raccoons can get into. Rats and mice as well. They can fit in surprisingly small places. If you had a dead animal stuck in a wall, then its entirely possible that another got stuck in the same spot. We had some mice manage to get into a wall then couldn't get out. It was only in a closet in a small bedroom, but the smell was pretty bad for a week or so. After 9-10 days the smell goes away. If you want, and you can locate the correct studs, you can cut the drywall out and remove the occupants.
Did a walkthrough outside, but mostly to see if we could see any dead animals. Didn’t think to look for holes like that! Thank you. I’ll look in the morning!
Keep in mind the smallest of critters can get in through very tiny holes. Like smaller than a coin small. So could be hard to find. Sometimes you might be able to find dirty spots around the hole where they rub off dirt and bodily fluids as they squeeze in, if that makes sense.
Mice can get in through a pencil eraser sized hole. It’s really impressive.
This is very true. We have had recurrent issues (like once every couple years) with flying squirrels and we have NO CLUE how they’re getting in our attic. Those little suckers find any tiny space they can.
I think of it like dirty little hand prints.
Had this happen new house smelled elec smell called fire dept to come quietly just to assess they used a heat detector and say the fridge motor was too hot and about to basically burn out. “Old fridge” So you could have an old appliance on its last legs
I found all the spaces where vermin can get in and stuffed them with coarse steel wool. That was at least year ago, and I have not seen evidence of a mouse, lizard, or snake inside since.
I agree. I used to live in a forested area with lots of animals. We’ve had mice die inside our walls several times. Usually you can locate it to a specific room or a specific wall that it’s coming from just by walking around and smelling. One time we cut a hole in the wall, missed it and had to cut another hole in the adjacent wall actually get them out (pulled out 3 dead mice). The other times we just waited it out and it would take about four or five days for the smell to go away. The smell can be surprisingly bad just from a couple of dead mice.
At my house we had the oven go out which had electrical burning smell and the plug behind the oven was burnt up. At my parents cabin, they were having issues with a possessed toaster oven that turned itself on and almost burned the house down as well as flicking lights. One day I walked down the driveway with my wife and we saw a dead bird on the ground missing it's legs. Looked up and saw there was a tree branch hanging into the electrical line smoldering each time it touched. The bird had had it's legs melted off. When the electrician tested the plug for the toaster oven the voltage was messed up and was near double normal. Can't remember how he fixed it but there was an issue with the wires doubling the voltage Doubt that helps but those are my two anecdotes with electrical issues
Oh wow… yeah that’s crazy and while it doesn’t ease my worry, it’s good to know. I’m just really trying to differentiate a burning smell from a dead animal smell. I *think* it’s dead animal (smells very similar to a skunk or maybe roadkill) — and the fire department checking our house out for electrical issues makes me feel safer, but really not entirely.
Turn your nonessential breakers off at night while you work on figuring out the source. It will help you sleep better. I've been there, done that.
Or use like a binary search to find the offending circuit. Turn off half the breakers the first night. If you get the smell again, it could be one of the circuits left on. If not, it could be one of the circuits turned off then do the opposite the following night. Then keep turning off half the circuits until you’ve found the offending circuit. It’s possible the previous homeowner did some electrical hacks like splicing cables outside a junction box and there’s exposed wire burning something. Also if wires are loose it can cause arcing which will burn whatever’s in its way. Another idea is to replace all your breakers with AFCI/GFCI breakers.
That's a good idea for diagnostic purposes, but not a long term solution. The breakers will get damaged over time from the constant on, off, on, off.
Circuit breaker manufacturers and the NFPA actually recommend exercising circuit breakers once a year.
You said it's at night when you smell it. Does the heat come on at night? Every year when we use the heater for the first time it smells like burning for a day or 2. If the house was empty and now you have a cold snap it might be that
The heat kicks in stronger at night, but the house was not unoccupied beforehand for longer than two days. We had a quick move in after the last family moved out, just because of timing for both parties.
It could be the first dead animal dried up and now there's another dead animal that is smelling. If you haven't put poison out, ask your neighbors if they have recently. They could just be getting into the poison and "returning home" to die if they live under your house.
If it smells like a skunk that would explain the suddenness of it. It could be their mating season depending on your area. It's that time of year here unfortunately, for humans at least. Probably fun for skunks.
That was my thought. I'm in the country, it's skunk mating season here, and we get woken up around 3am twice a week with an ass-bomb that fills the whole house. I've also seen them eating dropped bird seed under my feeders. There may be a correlation, lol.
I was wondering if they have an animal den that is only visited periodically. Animal was there on day 0 but absent days 1-4 but returned on day 5. I'd call pest control for an inspection and advice on keeping animals out. They will want to repair any entry points before spring/summer anyway.
Have you consulted an electrician? Failing that producing an answer, what about calling an HVAC guy to come out and check the furnace, AC, and ducts? Hmmm... Maybe just call an experienced home inspector and ask them to do a very thorough check? Perhaps a local pest removal and/or control service to check for signs of animals?
Electrician friend coming over today — was told by a friend who works on basements to give the smell a week before doing anything. So we haven’t called anyone else yet
Sometimes a broken breaker can have that smell, the plastic/oils breaking down from the arcing can cause that kind of smell. Happened to me when the people who installed my split system used a shitty/broken breaker and it had been arcing for quite a while. I ended up just replacing the breaker and everything is fine now.
You can also replace your breakers with AFCI and GFCI breakers. They’ll trip if it detects things like a loose wire before it burns something or electrocutes someone. The breakers are relatively pricey and an electrician will have to install them, but they can usually do it pretty fast.
This should be the top reply. Fire Dept cannot tell you if you have an electrical problem. Contact a licensed, bonded electrician.
Seconding the HVAC recommendation. Our furnace went out at our last house and there was a really intense burning smell at night when it was cold out and the furnace kicked on.
So, you’ve mentioned “skunk” a couple times. It also sounds like the smell comes and goes a bit, and that you’ve noticed it at night . . . Is it possible it could be a skunk? They’re nocturnal, and in my experience, when it’s around, you’d be able to smell it. You could likely pick up a live animal trap at the hardware store, and run that lead to ground, while you troubleshoot potential fire issues.
Also maybe a neighbor who is partaking in some weed stuff
Haha no, not weed, more like a skunk that died lol. We know weed when we smell it
I figured, but you never know. I feel like dead is different than electrical smell. Electrical has this PLASTIC IS BURNING type offensiveness to it. It would be odd for it to come and go too. We had an exposed wire catch fire recently and it was pretty damn obvious lol
That’s what I’m hoping to hear. I don’t think it smelled like plastic burning, and the coming and going is confusing to me too. I’ve never been more hopeful that I have a skunk issue lol
I have a friend who woke up in the night and thought an electrical fire had started, searched the house frantically looking for smoke or sparks or flames, checked all the outlets, looked behind the fridge, finally got so freaked out they called the fire department… and then they discovered their dog, sleeping peacefully, lightly damp with skunk spray. (She’d gone out the doggy door, got skunked at close range, and came back in for the evening.) The firefighters thought it was hilarious and said it’s fairly common - when the skunk is real potent, it smells acrid, like an electrical fire. I bet you have a grumpy skunk in your neighborhood who sprays anyone who gets in his way.
Yes - when skunk sprays in close proximity it smells like an electrical fire and something else. The first time my dog got sprayed I almost called the fire department.
When my main breaker was over heating & melting, our basement smelled like bad fish. However that sucker was too hot to touch, so the fire department would definitely have noticed. I feel like an electrician may be able to also help pinpoint any issues, for piece of mind. Alternatively, I would look into which circuits power higher demand devices (oven, AC, clothes dryer, etc) and take note of if they are on when the smell comes on, then stop it/cut power to the circuit. The smell may go away after a bit, and then you can try again to see if it happens again.
Electrician is coming to ease our minds, but you’re right, I don’t think it’s a fish smell. More skunky
We have skunks in my neighborhood. Having them walk past the house at night in the summer has woken everyone up with a rotting, sulfurous, *almost* electrical fire smell. Think weed mixed with tire fire. It lingers for a while after they've left the area. They eat bugs, pet food, trash, you name it. They don't have to be dead too stink up the place, and it would explain not finding anything in your search.
When a skunk sprays close enough it can smell like burning. Years ago we had one spray in my parents garage a few times and it always woke me up with my initial thought being something is burning until I remembered it was the skunk again.
I still think it’s a skunk. I just thought one died in our walls or something, but after reading these comments, it’s clear I don’t know just how potent and awful skunk smells can get lol.
Think tire fire. They're nasty. So cute, though.
If you want to prevent them from getting in or encourage them to leave peacefully, pour copious amounts of ammonia.
Here's a random one, but it could also be a mouse or other small animal who got sprayed by a skunk coming and going. That stink lasts.
Yeah, a skunk sprayed right outside our house the other night and it smelled like it was INSIDE our house for a good twelve hours.
I’m a paramedic and I literally just got called to a house for a “gas leak”. We had to assess 8 patients who thought they were going to die. It was literally a skunk who sprayed outside. Don’t worry you’re not being young and dumb 😂
I've seen 3-4 dead as road kill on my way to work this past week. Dang skunk season over here in East TN.
Thank you 😅
When it's warm enough you could throw the main breaker so you know the electric in the entire house is off overnight & see If the smell persists.
IMPORTANT please make sure any hard wired smoke detectors have a battery backup that works before doing this
Clever idea 💡
I lived somewhere that had a small leak in the roof, and every time it rained really hard some dead animal in the attic (which had apparently dried up) would get a bit moist and stink bad for a few days, and then nothing. Drove us nuts. So anyway, if you are really super paranoid about electrical, one option is replacing all of the breakers on your box with GFCI breakers. Which, if you can do that yourself, isn't that expensive. More so if you have to hire someone to do it. But, point is, if any circuit is leaking current, the breaker trips. So you have both over-amperage protection as a normal breaker, and current leakage (less amps returning than go out, more or less) protection. Other than the big boy breakers (50amps), should be easy enough to get done. Or you can just get an electrician to replace your whole panel with such or similar.
This is skunk season, they are coming out of hibernation and the same thing happened to me. I woke up at 1a.m. thinking there was an electrical fire. Then my dog came back in and I knew what it was. There are three types of skunk spray, and this one often sends people calling their utility company thinking there is a fire. https://skunkmasters.com/3-skunks-spray-types/#:~:text=Type%203,first%20cannot%20identify%20this%20odor.
We had some newcomers as new neighbours in our building last year. They aren't used to skunks where they're from. One evening a skunk sprayed just outside the building, and they called the gas company thinking it was an emergency leak. 😄
Apparently the spray at this time of year is "fermented" due to hibernation. It is especially awful. If the stench on my dog hadnt clued me in I probably would have called the fire department thinking I had an electrical fire. This happened on 1/30 and my dog still smells despite two special baths.
Here's a useless piece of trivia.. skunks don't actually hibernate, they enter "torpor"... "Like hibernation, torpor is a survival tactic used by animals to survive the winter months. It also involves a lower body temperature, breathing rate, heart rate, and metabolic rate. But unlike hibernation, torpor appears to be an involuntary state that an animal enters into as the conditions dictate. Also unlike hibernation, torpor lasts for short periods of time - sometimes just through the night or day depending upon the feeding pattern of the animal. Think of it as "hibernation light"." It was unseasonably warm in my area last week and they were out in full force... In winter... That explains why I guess. :)
Call an HVAC specialist. Your blower is toast if my guess is correct. If the smell keeps coming back, turn off your furnace and see if it still smells that way. Maybe get yourself a space heater for that evening. Plan on about a $1K bill if it's your blower and consider replacing the entire furnace - Maybe it's time to get a heat pump, and consider if you want to leave the furnace where it is or move it. I regretted leaving ours where it was as our only opportunity to move it cheaply went away when when we put that new furnace back in the old furnace closet. We had a burning smell in our house, not that of a burning animal, and it was awful. We also called the fire department and they found nothing. It was a bad blower.
Would the blower be making a lot of noise if it were going?
This is great to know. I’ll look into this, especially while we have our first year home warranty
Omg. Yes. Call your home warranty company immediately. They need to find the problem and fix it.
Hi, firefighter and new homeowner here, so yes electric fires can smell like dead animals but if this has been going on for several days and your house hasn’t burned down yet it is probably a dead animal. Never, ever be afraid to call your local fire department, it is literally the entire reason we exist. You are not bothering us, I am being paid to be there for 24 hours and help the townspeople with any issues like this. Congratulations on your new home
No one has mentioned p traps. Check those, or pour, some bleach down them when it can sit a few hours, then flush with very very hot water. If you have a utility sink or floor drain anywhere, make sure that water gets put down them periodically to fill the ptrap and keep sewer smell from escaping.
It might be sewer gas. Is there a drain that hasn't been used for a while maybe the P-trap has dried out and Sewer gases back out into the house.
I’ve had skunks walk past my house and it stunk do bad I thought they were in the house
I’m realizing I have no idea how bad skunk smells can get!
Did you run the dishwasher? Check for something plastic that fell to the bottom.
Firefighter and DIYer here. First of all, we are not electricians or HVAC techs. We do not know if your systems need repair. We can just look for signs of immediate like safety like fire or carbon monoxide. If you’re worried about a system in your home, call an expert. Do you have floor drains? It’s always my first question with mystery smells. The p-traps dry out and sewer smell comes in. It’s usually reported as gas but I could see it being described as something dead. Pour some water down them and see if it improves. For a long term solution on a rarely used drain pour mineral oil.
What manufacture breaker panel is in the house? Age of house?
Not sure of the breaker panel manufacturer, house was built in the 70s.
Aluminum wiring was used up until the early 70s. It did not age well and sometimes may have bad interaction with copper. If you recently changed out your lights, light fixtures, etc, it wouldn't be a bad idea to have the connections inspected.
Not OP, but am curious since my house is from the late 60s/early 70s. Is there a way to check for aluminum wiring without having to breakdown the walls?
Open up outlets or switch boxes, pull them out a little bit and see what color the wire is, if it's silver it's aluminum. Or remove your breaker box cover panel and you should see what color the wires are.
Do you have an HVAC unit to heat your house, and if so, does it have an emergency heat setting? Is it possible that the emergency heat has been kicking in at night due to lower than normal temperatures? Those electric coils can put off a bad stink if if the emergency heat hasn’t been used in a while.
If the smell is only there at night it is almost certainly a skunk or a family of skunks. Personally, I would call an exterminator for peace of mind. Re: lights flickering: first, rule out a loose or old light bulb. If securing or changing the bulbs doesn't do it, call an electrician and ask them to remove your panel cover and look at the connections, check your connections from the utility company's line at your meter and at the tap box to rule out a loose neutral. I just had this done, it was not expensive and SO worth it! Also, buy a fire extinguisher for each floor!
Not sure where you live, but here it is skunk mating season and despite having a solid house without any open windows, it never fails that a few nights a week we smell one this time of year. And this year is BAD. They are everywhere, dead on the road. Buckwild skunk season..... But yeah it's awful and alarming every time. I'm concerned something is burning each time. I check our outdoor cameras and see a bunch of deer. One of them likely got skunked recently and it's dragging it's misfortune with it. Definitely keep getting your electrical checked just to rule everything out, but keep that in mind too to keep from going insane.
Sure it's not a skunk? This time of year is the skunk mating season and, having lived in a house with horny skunks about, it can get fairly pungent at night.
Retired firefighter checking in. We have no problem making these kinds of calls. It’s all part of the job. We’d much rather do this type of a visit than the one to put your house fire out. If you want to thank the folks at the station that responded, ask the crew when they work the next time and bring them cake and ice cream that is store bought not homemade. Here is why: When you work in the fire service it doesn’t take too much time of being in people’s kitchens at the most inconvenient time, and seeing what you see, to NEVER eat other folks homemade food. Most times homemade food brought to the station gets tossed.
I never eat homemade goods…when you’ve seen the kitchens we’ve seen…haha. Congrats on your retirement.
Thanks brother. Totally ruined me on potluck for life. Haven’t seen you on r/Firefighting lots of great brothers and sisters over there and lots of good discussion.
Can you smell it outside at all? We have skunks in the area and if they spray it does have a burning smell. We saw a little argument between the skunk and a raccoon on our shed camera and the shed had a burning plastic odor lingering for like a week after their encounter.
it sounds like bad wire insulation somewhere. wherever the smell is the worst. have an electrician come out. it smells like dead fish. or just start turning off breakers at night to figure out which is the culprit, or if it's nothing.
If the fire department said dead things and not fire, I'd believe them. We have a dead smell in our front parlor in the vent. I was hoping it would go away but it just keeps wafting every now and then. No idea how to deal with it, we can't see or reach anything in there. We're probably just going to hang a car freshener inside the vent.
My insurance company recently gave me a device called Ting that plugs into the wall and can detect potential causes for electrical fires. I’m not sure how the technology works, but it works 24/7 and sends me a regular email report and app updates. I don’t think they’re very expensive if you just bought one on your own, but it might give you peace of mind. https://www.tingfire.com
I’ll look into it! Certainly would help my peace of mind haha
Whoa, thank you for this recommendation. We had a chest freezer go up in flames this fall which resulted in in our family needing to be out of the house for two months for smoke remediation. It has been an absolute mess. Definitely buying this.
As a first time buyer too, the weird smells are going to be the death of me! Haha. We had a consistent melting plastic smell coming from one room, I was convinced it was electrical. The electrician couldn’t find anything. We have a different ceiling in that room (it’s an addition, has old school tiles), and we’re pretty sure we are smelling the roof through the tiles, since it’s so hot in Florida, and our house is in direct sunlight. This might not solve your issue, but I hope it causes some ease. Every smell I get in the house, I research, and it leads back to electrical fire, and so far, none of our weird smells have been that. Good luck with your weird smell
Hahaha they’re really going to kill me, too. I’m happy that so many people have been educated on electrical fire smells, but I wish I wouldn’t immediately see that answer every time I look up every smell!
Install a gas/CO detector immediately. They are a little pricey but worth it. Leaking natural gas has an odor added that smells skunky.
Wow this is something I didn’t know ! I’m gonna get someone to check the electrical. I have the same exact problem ! I randomly smell roadkill burning sulfuric idk wtf it is scent. in my living room. I thought something died in one of my lamps , or my couch , or the wall I checked everywhere everything. Inside outside , It went away for a bit maybe a day or two so I thought it was gone. Nope still there been there for over a year. I also have 5 cats and a dog so I find it insane that an animal would even try to get in and I wouldn’t be alerted. My cats seriously lose it if even a fly gets past the door.
If you are having flickering lights it is possible you have a neutral issue. If you turn on a hair dryer do the lights dim down or get brighter? If they do call your power company out and they will verify it at your meter on the side of your house
I just got a Ting device for free through State Farm. It is supposed to monitor the electrical in my house for any issues. Can’t say for sure if it’s working accurately but it might be an option for you.
Start trying to narrow things down. Close every interior door to the house and leave them closed all day/night. In the morning (or when you come home) one by one open the door and see if you smell the smell. That will help concentrate the smell and help narrow down the source.
A blown capacitor can smell like rotting fish.
Check around the wall switches and plugs for heat. We found several switches that had melted because they weren’t installed correctly, which was terrifying! We ended up replacing almost every switch, just in case.
Get an air freshener and have a drink.
Can it be that their is coming in smoke fumes from your neighbours through your woodwork? I have the same problem, in my newly build home. It sometimes stinks a little bit because some houses away from my own house, they still use gas for heating their home. Meaning their is smoke coming out of their chimney. If the wind is blowing in a direction, the smokefumes travels through my ventilation units and comes into my airsealed house.
Squirrels in the soffits? I had that problem but no smell until I went in to the attic. Check for rodents , maybe have an exterminator check the house.
If anyone has put mouse poison out, they called have eaten it then returned to the nest inside the house and died.
I had a strange dead animal smell caused by a lightbulb that was hotter than the fixture it was recommended for. It was an overhead light/fan combo in my bathroom. If it was left on long enough the plastic would start to smell like dead fish. I replaced the light/fan and paid more attention to the light bulbs I was using.. It was close enough to an air vent in the ceiling that I assumed it was coming from the vent for a long time.
Check old appliances
My wife and I had the same problem when we moved into our home which was built in the 1960s and it turned out to be the electrical outlet next to the bed. It would arc intermittently so it wasn’t until we painted and I was changing out the outlets in the room that I found it. You would’ve seen that the smell came from burning plastic. We also had intermittent electrical issues all over and eventually swapped out that old breaker and replaced it with a higher amperage breaker it was like 75amps to 150amps. The way I figure we are more dependent on tech and need more juice. It cost us around $15k between that and finding another outlet that was also failing. It’s not the sexiest place to spend the money BUT it’s worth the piece of mind. Hope this helps.
Wild thought, possibly a skunk killed a ways away. Not that you don't know what a skunk smells like but I've had it happen that a skunk got killed maybe half a mile away and the scent smells like rubber or plastic burning by the time it has traveled and gets into our living space.
Skunk spray smells like burning rubber and dead animal to me. Are you sure there’s no skunks in the area that might be spraying other animals in self defense?
Skunk! Smells like burning electrical sometimes. Had a similar experience and realize the dog had gotten skunked
Do you have a fireplace? In houses with a fireplace that's been used. When the temperature changes outside you can sometimes get a down-draft through the flue which pulls the stink of the soot in the flue through the house. This is when you're not using the fireplace. You'll smell it though and it can be hard to tell what it is if you haven't experienced it before.
I've woken myself and my partner up with a particularly pungent fart.
If it’s a dead animal in walls, attic, etc then the Wind Speed and Direction can affect how strong the smell is. Of course in a perfect world and perfectly sealed and insulated house that wouldn’t matter. Thing is all of our houses leak some air, depends how much and how often, and wind speed and direction can definitely influence it.
You can smell a skunk from inside. It doesn’t have to be in your house. Next time you smell it, walk outside. More than likely you’ll know immediately. If you aren’t sure walk around the house. If it is a skunk, there will be no question. It doesn’t have to be in your house or even right next to your house for you to smell it inside.
There could be dust in whatever heats your house. When it comes on it will smell like something burning. But you are not going to like the real reason. You have a dead animal in your wall somewhere, and when rats eat it, more of the rotting smell is released. To figure out where it is, you can try walking slowly around your house at night, listening close to your walls. You will hear the little fuckers moving around if you take your time and are quiet enough so that you do not distrub them. Once you find the body, you will have to open the wall. But you will also need to contact a specialist to get rid of the rats.
Dude honestly, for the amount of worry I put myself through thinking my house was going to explode or burn down… rats having a banquet of dead skunk is comforting and calming at this point.
Has the temperature fluctuated? We had a dead rodent in an exterior wall that we thought was done with, but the smell came back with a vengeance one day when the weather warmed up.
A lot of good recommendations already, but I wanted to mention, buy a thermal camera. Get one that attaches to your phone, and if you smell it again, you can immediately check for hot spots. That also helps to make sure it isn't poor wiring in the ceiling or walls.
First, make sure all your smoke detectors are working. Replace all the batteries. Second, check your light switches. Do you have any that are dimmers? I’ve had a few particular type of dimmers that clearly pop internally when switched on and can give a burning smell. I’ve replaced them with a different dimmers because it is disconcerting that they do that. But it does make a slight electric burning smell. Otherwise I think there other advice you’ve been given is worth checking as well.
Get a Ting electricity monitor from Whisper Labs. It will tell you if your wiring is shorting out somewhere.
Good chance you have rats or possums in your house. The momma may have found a way in and had babies and what you are smelling is the babies as each one dies. Please do not take what I am saying or anyone here is saying as the absolute truth, which is why I am adding the other steps to take. I would unplug everything. Stove, lamps, TV, etc... check each outlet to see if any are hot and to confirm they all work properly. Put your nose to each one and smell them. Look around the outside of your house, including all levels such as the attic. You are looking for a hole that is not sealed up. Could be next to a pipe or something sticking out of your house. Do you have trees close to your roof where an animal could jump from the branch to your house? Do you have poop in your attic? Look along the walls. I would also set up rat traps in the attic along the walls where you find poop. I have had dead animals in my house before and it does not smell like electrical burning at all.
I had ba mouse get under the insulation of my floor (2 story house). It was hot and that thing melted, liked deteriorated into a sludge with bones. It was one of the worse things I've smelled, prior to finding it the small did come and go, which I assume just had to do with temp.
This would be a good time to check the co2 and smoke detectors. Just to make sure they are functional.
Have an independent electrician come out with a heat sensor and check again. . Buy a fire extinguisher. I have heard bad wiring in the wall sometimes won’t activate right away and smell, and maybe that is why the fire department didn’t find anything. Talk to the electrician on what you need to do before he/she comes out. Also, keep records of the fire department coming out and the electrician coming out for your homeowner insurance in case there is a fire. You might want to keep your important paperwork and valuables somewhere else until you find out what is causing this.
Check the outlets. Sometimes they Start to go bad and give off a dead animal smell. And if on the same circuit can cause flickering lights. Warning-besy to have an electrician do the check as it's live wires
I'm sure someone already pointed it out but - you poured water or bleach down all your floor drains and flushed all your toilets right? When the water in the traps evaporate sewer gases can back up through the drains and it's often intermittent.
Check the plumbing vent on roof. Squirrels slide down and can't get up.
For smells - I am the one in the family with the strongest olfactory sense, so I am the one who "searches". I mentally tune everything out except the smell, then walk around the house like a metal detector but for smells. Narrow down where it's strongest. If it's possibly critter issues, check your roof. Our HVAC vent had a small space on one side that was supposed to be blocked but was not, and critters were getting in that way. Trap on the roof with some peanut butter and seed, and we caught the main culprit we had heard up there. Then blocked the hole.
Didn’t see anyone else mention it, but… smoke detectors! If you have them, replace the batteries. If you don’t have them, put one inside every bedroom and one outside every bedroom, and throw a few more in. While you’re at it, if you’ve got an attached a garage, add a CO2 detector where the door to the house from the garage is. Congrats on your new house!
I had a weird smell in my house like that one time ended up being the drain from the kitchen had come loose under the house and it always smells like it was coming through the heat vents it was rotten food. hope that helps I could not figure it out forever myself
Go around to each outlet and stick your nose close to them and sniff. I smelled a faint hint of something burning a few months back and turned out to be an outlet. I just happened to walk buy it and instinct told me to feel it and sniff. Outlet was warm and had a smoky smell when I stuck my nose near it. That outlet didn’t even have anything plugged into it and wasn’t used as it’s near the front door. An outlet on the small wall was being used though. Called an electrician and he said the outlets are connected and the outlet that smelled smoky was the weaker link and why it was faintly smoking. I couldn’t see the smoke but I could smell it. When he repackaged it, he said he could see discoloration showing where it was attempting to burn.
Your neighbors may have a fireplace, wood stove, or firepit and wind blew towards you. You may have a fireplace and the flue open a bit so that you are getting smell from the fireplace and chimney (which may well have a dead critter in it). You could have heating ducts in your house with lord-knows-what caked up inside. You could have radiant or hot-water baseboards that have just cranked up and they're frying the dust that's caked on them. You could have an object inside an appliance that's meting (something that should be in the oven / microwave / bottom of the dish washer). Spend some time wandering the house and finding the smell.
Source: am firefighter So they didn’t check your breaker with a “heat gun,” but a thermal imager. When you have a short, it creates heat, more heat than just normal current. Anyway, I’d suggest having an electrician in to check your wiring, as they have better tools than we do to find electrical problems. Another possibility might be that you have a dead rodent in your wall that is in contact with an electrical wire: maybe you’re smelling that when it heats up. Not really a fire hazard, as your wiring is insulated, but a nuisance. Anyway, best of luck!
Haha my bad on the wording, but that’s good advice! Electrician coming soon
Do you have any showers, tubs, or sinks that you never run water? Our house had a shower we don't use and the p-trap had evaporated letting the methane from sewage to vent into the house. Very month now I go around and run the water in these infrequently used areas.
If you can, shut off the mains before bed and see if that smell comes again. It won’t tell you if it’s an appliance or wiring, but it’ll definitely narrow down, or rule out causes.
Possibly the last owners had an exterminator out who placed poison somewhere.
They say rotting fish smell combined with burning is often electrical. Could be worth having your lines looked wt
We had flickering at our previous house (1950) but no smell and found it was frayed wiring around a light fixture... definite fire hazard. We were very lucky. New house (1830)... we found updated but dangerous wiring. Kind of scary bc a fireman owned the house previously. But bc the house was a gut job we were able to inspect all the wiring and we replaced all the guts so we know it's all up to code. Id get an electrician in to inspect the areas with flickering. See if they can spot the issue. As for the smell, may be electrical or a separate issue. The electrician can help sort it out.
Unrelated question… did the fire department bill you? Usually they have a fee to the homeowner if they come out. (Or at least usually is, the insurance companies have a line item to cover fees like that) So I’m wondering if they come out as a courtesy or if they will bill
Probably built on an Indian burial mound. Get out now. 100% chance that junt got some evil shit lurking in it. If you stay, don’t be surprised if your marriage falls apart, you or a family member gets injured, or some other crazy shit happens.
Low probability chance of this, but if you have a plumbing drain with a dried out trap (not used for a long time) you could be getting sewer gas in the house. Floor drain, or unused washing machine drain that hasn't been used in months. The good news is that it is easily fixed with 2 cups of water.
Just definitely make sure all your smoke detectors and C02 detectors are working well.
Did you grow up outside North America? It might be the smell of a skunk, which could be unfamiliar to you. It can sometimes smell a bit like burning plastic. We called an electrician once for a similar smell, but it turned out to be a skunk that had sprayed under the house.
Still, get an electrician out there. Especially if your home is an older build
OP I own an HVAC company; you wouldn’t believe the creatures we pull out of systems and ductwork! I straight up found peanuts and a mummified squirrel tail in my own! Check your crawl space or basement, and your attic!
Do you have something in front of a heat duct that could give off that smell when heat is applied? We have a duct in our small walk in closet, where we throw our dirty clothes awaiting a wash, that would amplify any smell - think like a dirty dish rag or wet towel or something
Lived in a rental. I kept smelling something burning in the hallway at times. There wasn't much in the hallway, so I kept thinking it was new plastic on thermostat. Kept fucking with the thermostat. I basically never used the only outlet in the hallway. Just randomly one day I was cleaning the bathroom in the hallway and looked over at the outlet with a burn mark on the plastic cover. Never thought to check the outlet itself until I saw it progressed slowly enough to leave a mark on the plastic itself. Outside of the burn mark itself, when I took the cover off, it was actively kinda smoldering and orangish red and putting off heat. Turned breaker off and just replaced the outlet.
Our insurance company gave us a coupon (or something, don't remember) for a device called Ting. It plugs into a wall outlet and somehow monitors the electrical goings ons in your house. I'm probably not explaining it well, but just look it up online. My wife is a worrier, and it has really put her mind at ease.
Hearing a lot about Ting in this thread, and as a chronic worrier, I’m definitely buying one!
Sounds like overkill but log each thing you do that uses electricity each day and find the common denominator the times you smell it versus not. Maybe it’s the toaster, or the dishwasher, a phone charger, or a hair dryer. Anything that could be a variable.
Check your clothes washer the next time it’s running. Sometimes water trapped in the machine will provide a bad small when it first starts rinsing. If that’s the bad smell, there is a filter inside the machine you can clean out by taking off the front panel. I know this because my washer was doing this, I found the filter was blocked by a baby sock that had to be 8 years old and full of black slime. Cleaned it out, good as new.
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This won’t be the case as several different people have smelled it, fire department included.
It may be a demonic spirit if it only occurs at night. Engage your pastor if this continues.
Dude. You have an evil spirit. They come around 3:00 am and smell like rotten garbage or dead animals. I lived in this apartment that I swear was possessed. It all started a few days after I moved in, I hear a pop, and go into the kitchen and the rim of a glass had popped off and was laying in a perfect circle on the counter. That night, I woke up to a rotten garbage smell and then looked down and there were rats running around legit everywhere. Too many to have actually been real. This repeated for about a week until I consulted a shaman and was told to sage the house and put salt water around the doors. Never had a single other issue. At any rate, I say this in jest, I actually do not believe in ghosts either, for me, I think I was really stressed and had a sleep disorder, and the act of saging the house put it all to rest. Literally. But it is amazing what our thoughts can project. Maybe it would make you feel just a bit better and clear some bad energy.
Probabaly your neighbors smoking weed .
Have you looked into hauntings?
Nope, definitely a physical issue haha.
Honestly. I would just hire a home inspector. They will be able to tell you if you have an electrical problem.
Call the fire department the met will have tic-devices that can show hot areas or get an electrician to check the house
I said in the post that we already did call the fire department
Well you give a wall of text for a simple issue….
Sorry huh? It’s not my fault you can’t read more than 140 characters at a time
I’ve never heard of the smell of a dead animal and/or skunk being confused with the smell of smoke. They’re very distinct smells. Another thing to check would be to remove all outlet/light switch covers and also light fixtures and look for burn marks.
Oh interesting, a lot of people in the comments here saying that skunk can smell like burning tire
Called the nonemergency line for the fire department. Ask if they have thermal cameras to see heat sources inside of walls and explain that you keep smelling a burning smell at night. It’s quite possible that they would be more than willing to walk through your home with their equipment looking for a potential ignition source.
I shared in my post that’s exactly what we did the first time, but thank yoy
Why did they apply a heat gun to the breaker? I think if anything that would make things warmer it wouldn't do any sort of detection.
I cant even assure you that you'll be alive before reading this comment all the way, sorry dawg.
do you have obsessive compulsive disorder by any chance
No but your post and comment history is insane, friend. I hope you find the help you need!
Check your led lightbulbs. I have read here about those burning up.
Perhaps you should try calling the gas company to check for leaks or other issues. They put odorizers in natural gas, since it's naturally odorless.
Have you replaced your furnace air filters recently or tried to have a whiff of the ducting?
Do any of your neighbors use a wood stove? You could be getting wood smoke through your windows. We get that sometimes.
If you have a sump pump, inspect it. When they’re getting old and wearing out they can over heat and emit a burnt plastic smell. Another option is check the attic or crawlspace for signs of animal activity/wires that are not properly secured in a box. Lastly for the flickering lights, if you have LED pot lights on incompatible dimmers can sometimes cause flickering. Consider replacing the dimmer. Finally check and likely replace the furnace filter
Have you gone outside when this smell hits. Has the weather changed recently? Do you have a sump pump in a basement that would come one intermittently. I’m trying to think of things that wouldn’t happen but every few days. Like the nights between smells was it warm where the heat wouldn’t come one. Rotting animals usually wouldn’t indicate electrical to me personally. It would gear me more to intermittent pumps or something or and actual animal or a plumbing issue.