Furnace burn smell

Red Squirrel · 06-06-2010, 12:41 PM

I just fired up the furnace as it's been quite cold latetly (now that I bought an air conditioner LOL) and noticed a burn smell. Before I got my AC, I rewired the thermostat so I could control the fan only, and also removed a patch in the basement so the return takes basement air. I'm suspecting the burn smell might be dust build up on the heat exchanger, but I don't recall smelling this when I turned it on for the first time in winter.

What are things I could look for to ensure all is normal? I turned it off for now, just wanted to run it for an hour or so just to bring the house above 15C anyway, it's not freezing or anything.

yuri · 06-06-2010, 12:49 PM

Was it blowing heat properly? No error codes? With that open hole and some dust it probably smells.

Red Squirrel · 06-06-2010, 01:02 PM

It seemed to be working ok, it just got me a little scared so I turned it off. But it's probably just dust then right? I patched up that hole now, when I get the chance I'll set up some kind of damper I can easily open/close as needed. Guess I should just let it run and see if it goes away?

yuri · 06-06-2010, 01:29 PM

Yep, I had a Carrier like yours in my 1st house, it smelled on startup. How much do you pay cents/kwh for electricity? Do they still use nuclear or have all the plants running? Heard there were problems a couple years ago.

Red Squirrel · 06-06-2010, 02:07 PM

It's actually a Bryant, I was mistaken if I said Carrier in another post. I don't recall my cost ker KW/h and don't have a bill handy, but it's tiered as of not too long ago. I pay about 65/month (equal billing plan).

The furnace seems good now, so guess I was just paranoid that I had did something wrong, and it was probably just extra dust/spider webs getting in there.

**beenthere** · 06-06-2010, 02:07 PM

Or. It could be that your return is pulling combusted fumes into the basement and house.