When you walk into your house after being gone for a while and you find it smells awful, you usually start looking right away for the source of the odor. In many cases, a foul odor that permeates your entire home is coming from your heating and air conditioning system. The following discusses these foul odors that are common with HVAC systems and what you can to do to eliminate them for good.
Rotten Eggs
If you smell the horrible aroma of rotten eggs in your home and you know there is no food rotting in your trash can or other reason for the smell, you need to open a couple of windows and exit your home immediately, especially if you heat your home with natural gas. Gas companies add an offensive rotten egg odor to natural gas because, on its own, it has no odor. Natural gas is extremely flammable, and breathing in natural gas can be deadly, so, if you smell rotten eggs, you more than likely have a gas leak. Contacting your gas company right away is important for repairing a gas leak.
Burning Electrical Wires
When you walk into your home to smell the odor of electrical wires melting or burning and your HVAC system is running, the smell could be from your system overheating. Take a look at your HVAC system's filter to see if it is dirty and causing your system's resistance heaters to overheat. This is a good reason to always change your system's filters on time. However, if your system's filter is not dirty, it is time to contact a HVAC technician to inspect the system and make any electrical repairs. Bear in mind that, if your system's wiring is shorting out or melting, the danger of fire is great, so making repairs as soon as you smell anything electrical is important.
Dirty Socks
When bacteria are able to grow and thrive on the coils of your HVAC system, they can cause the air coming through your vents to smell like old, dirty socks. Not only is this unhealthy for you and your family, it is also embarrassing when you have guests over. Getting rid of the dirty sock smell takes you cleaning the coils in your HVAC system with a cleaner that does not contain acids. Contacting an HVAC professional for cleaning your system is the best way to get the results that will eliminate the smell of dirty socks flowing through your house.
Investing in regular maintenance of your home's HVAC system can help you avoid it causing foul odors to drift through your home. For more tips and assistance, talk to a company like Advanced Air Quality Services.
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