Had A Big Scare Last Night !!!

[movnup]

Last night my wife woke me up @ 3:30 am to tell me something was burning. It smelled like a electrical wire cooked off and I got the family outside and then ran around the house and garage trying to find the source (electrical panel, appliances, outlets, the shop upgrades I've been doing, etc). After not finding anything in that frantic few minutes we called the fire department and they told us to get out of the house and when they showed up they used a device that can detect heat through walls & floors. They throughly checked every source of heat and thought it probably was the furnace as the burnt wire smell was thoughout the house.

To make a long story we don't really know what the problem is but the furnance has a bright blue flame and the motor is running fine. We have called a furnace company to check it out but if anybody out there has some ideas of what could be causing a burning smell from a furnace and / or in-line air filter unit I would greatly appeciate it!!!

The net net is everyone is safe and well but that sure was one wild way to wake up and none of us got very much sleep last night.

[smc331]

Glad you are all OK - it's the right thing to do to bring in the pros! Hope they find it quickly and that it isn't too expensive.

[charger1966]

Well the only thing I can say is, You did the right thing by getting the family out then calling the fire department. I happy that it was nothing serious. Good luck in finding the source.
Lance

[Tom Miller]

Hmmm, I guess without any better idea, I'd probably go through room by room and check anything and everything that's plugged into an outlet. Then, I'd check each outlet and light, to see if any appliance/clock/etc. or internal house wiring might have shorted.

Regards,
Tom

[JSCOOK]

I'm pretty sure I know what it is ... a good neighbour across the street just had it happen to them on the weekend too ...

Have a trustworthy or reputable service tech check your blower motor ... chances are your blower motor is just about fried out or overheating from dirt and dust build up ....

Glen, my neighbour, had the same sort of smell in the house and the fire detectors in certain parts of the house would go off ...

Found this out after seeing the furnace parked out front yesterday, and was hoping to score the motor/blower assembly for a DIY aircleaner (nuts it would have to be the parts I was looking for ) ... so I stopped by to find out what was going on ...

BTW, the only reason he had to replace the whole furnace was that it was some cheaper obscure make/model which parts are readily available for anymore (15+ yrs old) ...

[ddietrich]

Condensation Pan

We had a similar smell once. Came back from being out of town for the weekend to a bad electrical smell and the house being cold which clued us in to the HVAC. Found out the blower motor had went out and since the hot air from inside the furnace wasn't being moved it caused the condensation pan to melt. The melted pan is the smell which was similar to an electrical fire since it's the wire plastic coating that causes that smell. I would have a HVAC technician inspect your condensation pan.

[crokett]

Blower motor and/or HVAC pan is probably it. In my first house I had a blower motor die and the pan melt also.

[dreichel]

My sister-in-law had the same thing happen 3 weeks ago, in the middle of the night. She thought she smelled something "hot". The furnace would kick in, but the blower wouldn't start, causing the furnace to overheat. She has since had a new furnace installed (Armstrong). The HVAC company installed a new blower motor the day after the "incident" but offered to credit the cost of the new motor toward a new furnace.

She lives in a small town and the fire department is all volunteers. She works in the bank, so she's gotten to see them several times after the fire call. One of the firemen was able to get the blower "kick started" so her family would have heat.

[billwmeyer]

I would have to agree with the others on the blower motor. I didn't notice any mention of your smoke detectors going off through all this. I hope that doesn't mean that you don't have them. Since my daughter's house burned a couple of years ago, I am a HUGE supporter of smoke alarms. When my other daughter bought a house I bought her smoke alarms, co2 alarms and a fire extinguisher for a house UNwarming gift.

Bill

[Deadhead]

4 months ago, it wasn't the blower motor for me, but instead was the start capacitor. The blower motor was trying its hardest to get that thing spinning, but it just couldn't draw enough juice to do it without the start capacitor. So I switched the heat over to Emergency Heat - which shuts off the heat pump and uses only the internal electric strips. HVAC company was out the next day to fix it.