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Re: [Shop-talk] unnerving burnt smell

To: "mark@noakes.com" <mark@noakes.com>
Subject: Re: [Shop-talk] unnerving burnt smell
From: Pat Horne <roadsters@hornesystemstx.com>
Date: Sun, 08 Jul 2007 11:59:51 -0500
Mark,

You might approach the fire department to use your house as a training 
for their members in the use of the thermal camera. We also live in the 
county and have invited the volunteer fire department out when we are 
burning large piles of brush. We usually have a BBQ at the same time and 
most of the time they come out, watch, eat and make sure the embers are 
out before they leave. They have also burned down houses that owners 
needed to be demolished to allow their rookies to work on their hose skills.

Peace.
Pat

Thusly spake mark@noakes.com:
> It's more the burnt wood smell you get like when you run lumber too 
> fast thru a table saw on a dull blade...and no I haven't run the table 
> saw for several weeks...and it's in the basement in a separate room to 
> itself that does not have a tie to the HVAC. The odor is so faint that 
> it is very hard to track down, but it maybe appears to correlate with 
> running the HVAC and maybe the water heater at the same time. Both 
> units are new this year and both are gas. It was a professional install 
> on both systems to verify that they were brought up to latest code. I 
> would wonder if there's something with the AC pulling flue exhaust back 
> out of the water heater (the systems are connected) except that we have 
> a CO monitor in the room that is the problem and it is reading zero.
>
> I haven't given up on electrical issues at all...just have not been 
> able to narrow the problem so far. We live out in the county and have a 
> contract fire dept...not sure they have a thermal camera to loan but 
> will check.
>
> Also ended up with an unrelated emergency with the garage door opener 
> that had to be addressed this weekend and so that has been a 
> distraction on debugging as well.
>
> Thanks for any ideas...
>
> Mark Noakes
>
> ----Original Message----
> From: mayfield+shoptalk@sackheads.org
> Date: Jul 8, 2007 6:01 
> To: <shop-talk@autox.team.net>
> Subj: Re: [Shop-talk] unnerving burnt smell
>
> On Fri, Jul 06, 2007 at 11:52:44AM +0000, mark@noakes.com wrote:
>   
>> I'm getting a very unnevering burnt wood smell in my family room 
>>     
> that I 
>   
>> cannot find the source of. (I haven't run the table saw or the 
>> fireplace in quite a while.) It's very faint and not continuous. 
>>     
> While 
>   
>> I do have a gas water heater in the basement/garage, I'm worried 
>>     
> about 
>   
>> something electrical. The house is 19 years old.
>>
>> Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can find the source 
>> before it becomes disasterous? I guess I'll pull all the outlets in 
>> that part of the house this weekend to see if there are any issues.
>>     
>
> If your local fire department is unwilling to let you borrow/rent 
> their
> thermal imaging camera, you can use a stethoscope to find tiny arcs 
> in 
> the wiring inside the wall.  A few years ago I used one to chase down 
> what 
> turned out to be a loose wire nut in a junction box.  
>
> You mentioned that you have a fireplace.  Are you smelling 
> burnt/burning wood
> or are you smelling the typical ash smell of a chimney with a 
> downdraft?  In
> my experience they are very different smells (the latter of which 
> quickly
> gives me a headache).
>
> Jimmie
> _______________________________________________
> mark@noakes.com
>   

-- 
Pat Horne, Owner, Horne Systems 
(512) 797-7501 Voice            5026 FM 2001
Pat@HorneSystemsTx.com  Lockhart, TX 78644-4443
www.hornesystemstx.com
-- We support Habitat for Humanity - a hand UP, not a hand OUT --
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