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JLeslie's avatar

Is it true or not that a fishy odor in the house can mean you have an electrical problem?

Asked by JLeslie (65743points) September 20th, 2018 from iPhone

Off and on I have had this problem in my current home. Initially, it seemed to be really bad when I ran the heater. Note: it is NOT the smell you get when you haven’t run the heater for a year, and then you put it on and it smells like your house might burn down.

When I googled about the problem tons of information came up that it can be an electrical problem, yet my builder, electrician, and HVAC say they never heard of it.

What’s the story?

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3 Answers

MrGrimm888's avatar

Never heard of it. Could there be something dead in your ductwork?

Patty_Melt's avatar

Leaking gas smells like rotten eggs. They add the bad smell so leaks won’t go unnoticed.
I am unaware of any scent being an indicator of electrical problems.
I do know from personal experience that being shocked can make your mouth taste like metal.

JLeslie's avatar

I should have put a link. Here’s one, but it’s not only AC, I’ve read it can happen with lights too.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.conditionedairsolutions.com/amp/hvac-tips/fishy-smell-coming-air-vents/

It’s not sulfur (rotten eggs). Not the addictive to gas in your home. Not the dust in the coils from not using the AC system. Not something dead, but I wondered that too at first, but the smell isn’t constant. Meaning it was ok for several months, and only seemed to happen with the heater. Now the AC is running, but recently it was running more than usual, so I’m back to thinking it’s wiring. It’s a fish smell, or you could say similar to raw chicken gone bad, which is also why I thought an animal at one point, but growing up we had that happen, a bird died inside an outdoor vent, and it was not quite the same as this. On the off chance it is something dead, it still doesn’t explain why no electricians don’t know about all this that I read on the internet about the wiring.

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