Natural Gas smell inside the house?

[ClarabelleCowFan]

I keep smelling something inside the house that smells like natural gas. We do have a gas hot water heater, gas logs in the fireplace and gas heat. I called the gas company about 6pm and they sent a technician over to check and he couldn't really find anything. The guy even crawled into the attic to check the furnace.

This is a pretty large rental house and there are 2 heating units (one for each floor) but I have no idea if both are in the attic or not. The gas man said everything in the attic looked fine. The hot water heater is out in the garage and he even checked out there (last time we smelled gas in the house there was a leak in the hot water heater but that has been fixed).

As we were upstairs getting ready for bed, DD16 came in and said that she can smell gas in her bedroom now and it smells like it is coming out of the vents.

Ok, now what? The gas man says there are no gas leaks but we still smell gas in the house. Is there something else that could be giving off the same type of scent?

We have an attached garage. The lawnmower, weed eater and of course the gas/oil cans for those are inside but those are on the opposite end of the house from where we are smelling gas and we don't smell gas inside the garage.

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

Did they scent your Natural Gas? They do here in the winter. Call and ask, the smell is strong in the house when the furnace runs and if you have a gas dryer. Also, if you have a local fire dept, they will also come out and check the house for CO2 (though that does not have a smell) if you are really concerned.

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

Did they scent your Natural Gas? They do here in the winter. Call and ask, the smell is strong in the house when the furnace runs and if you have a gas dryer. Also, if you have a local fire dept, they will also come out and check the house for CO2 (though that does not have a smell) if you are really concerned.

The smell is strong when we run the furnace and seems to be coming out of the vents. Is it SUPPOSED to be? I have never lived in a house where that was the case but if that is normal down here then I will feel a lot better and turn up the thermostat a bit.

We have a CO detector. That is actually an odorless gas like you mentioned so I know it isn't that (and the gas company checked for that too while they were here). I did call the Fire Dept (sort of) - I called my ex who is a 20+ year firefighter and told him what was going on. He is the one that suggested we turn the heat way down and since the gas man didn't find any gas leaks that unless the smell got strong to wait until the morning and call the heating guy to come check both systems. He said if the smell got strong to call the local Fire Dept or gas company back and have them come back out again.

 

[fireman17]

Do you use natural gas for heat or oil heat? If you use oil heat is your unit forced hot air? Also you may have a cracked heater block inside your furnace. In our other house we had forced hot air oil heater and the fire box was cracked and right before start up we would smell oil. I also metered my home and found no CO readings.
You might want to check the inside of your burner.

 

[golfgal]

Did he look at both furnaces? Did you tell him there were two? If you still smell gas, call him back. Close the door to your DD's room to "trap" the gas so they can smell it. We had a similar problem many years ago in a rental and it took the gas company a couple visits to find the problem.

 

[Pugrpooh]

I happened to be next to our hot water heater when it happened to start up. There was a slight gas smell then. It's right next to our furnace, but I only noticed the odor when the water heater started. Is this normal?

 

[bicker]

I believe that if your gas appliances aren't effectively burning or venting all the fuel, you will smell the gas. It may be time to have the situation looked into and repaired.

 

[mhsjax]

I have never lived with gas, but I thought natural gas didn't smell, that is why a pp asked if they scented hers, I have heard of this before. This is the reason gas scares me. I know people love it, but I am terrified of it.

 

[mlynn]

Doyou have a gas dryer?? Of so did they check that?

 

[bicker]

As far as I know, natural gas distribution is always scented in the United States.

 

[lynxstch]

I have never lived with gas, but I thought natural gas didn't smell, that is why a pp asked if they scented hers, I have heard of this before. This is the reason gas scares me. I know people love it, but I am terrified of it.

they have to make it that way so you can tell if you have a leak..it used to smell like rotten eggs..but I don't think it is made to smell quite that strong anymore....if you still smell gas, OP, KEEP CALLING the gas co. till they locate the problem..that's their job..and I would hate to have something terrible happen if you don't find out where the smell is coming from..if you do suspect a leak..I wouldn't be lighting any matches, lighters, fires, etc till you find out if there really is a problem or not!
Good luck!

 

[mhsjax]

As far as I know, natural gas distribution is always scented in the United States.

That would be a good thing, otherwise you may have a small problem. Like I said I am totally gas illiterate.

 

[Robmom]

I would keep calling.

I had a similar situation last year. The house smelled strongly of gas. It was in a bunch of houses on our block. It was so bad that we were all standing outside in the cold, because the smell was so bad. My neighbor called the gas company and he checked both of our houses, and said that nothing was leaking in our houses. He said it was sewer gas. He said to keep flushing the toilets, and the smell would disappear. Well, what did you know - it worked.

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

Do you use natural gas for heat or oil heat? If you use oil heat is your unit forced hot air? Also you may have a cracked heater block inside your furnace. In our other house we had forced hot air oil heater and the fire box was cracked and right before start up we would smell oil. I also metered my home and found no CO readings.
You might want to check the inside of your burner.

It is natural gas for heat as far as I know. This is a rental and we just moved in this summer so we just turned on the heat for the first time this month and all this happened. It is definitely a gas smell as opposed to an oil smell.

Did he look at both furnaces? Did you tell him there were two? If you still smell gas, call him back. Close the door to your DD's room to "trap" the gas so they can smell it. We had a similar problem many years ago in a rental and it took the gas company a couple visits to find the problem.

The gas "man" that came out had to be no older than 19 and I told him there were 2 heating units but that I had no idea where they were since this was a rental house. He went up into the attic with a tiny flashlight (I offered him a big one) and his gas detector and came out in a few minutes and said all was fine. DH is out of town (of course) and after speaking with him later that night he remembered that there is a 2nd attic access point over the garage and now I wonder if the 2nd furnace may be up there. If so then the gas man didn't check that one out since those 2 attic spaces are not connected.

I happened to be next to our hot water heater when it happened to start up. There was a slight gas smell then. It's right next to our furnace, but I only noticed the odor when the water heater started. Is this normal?

We had a leak in our hot water heater earlier this year - the last time I smelled gas in this house. You can still smell a slight aroma of gas in the room where the hot water heater is in but the plumber told me that was normal.

I believe that if your gas appliances aren't effectively burning or venting all the fuel, you will smell the gas. It may be time to have the situation looked into and repaired.

Got a call into the property manager now to have the HVAC company come out and look. Both heating systems are shut off in the meantime.

We do not have a gas dryer - both washer and dryer are brand new electric.

they have to make it that way so you can tell if you have a leak..it used to smell like rotten eggs..but I don't think it is made to smell quite that strong anymore....if you still smell gas, OP, KEEP CALLING the gas co. till they locate the problem..that's their job..and I would hate to have something terrible happen if you don't find out where the smell is coming from..if you do suspect a leak..I wouldn't be lighting any matches, lighters, fires, etc till you find out if there really is a problem or not!
Good luck!

Oh, I will. I don't mess with stuff like that. I just wondered if there was some other explanation that I was overlooking. The gas man mentioned that some cleaners or even some Christmas decorations may emit an odor that smells like gas but I haven't been using any new cleaners and the decorations have been up for a week and this smell is new plus it is coming from the heating vents.

I am not a big fan of using gas just because of situations like this. We have had carbon monoxide leaks in 2 other houses which is scary stuff. We never go without a CO detector now!

I swear this stuff only happens when DH is out of town. He was gone last week and the garage door broke trapping my van inside for 3 days while the new parts were ordered.

 

[SC Minnie]

We have natural gas heat, logs, and stove and never smell the gas. There is something not right.

 

[Colleen27]

If you have pilotless gas appliances and a very sensitive sniffer you might sometimes smell gas right when the appliance is lighting if you're in the immediate area, simply because the gas comes on an instant before the ignition device lights the burner. But that's really only if you're standing right on top of the device - I notice it sometimes on my stove or hot water tank, if I'm within a foot or two when it kicks on. DH can't smell it at all, even when I can, and it disappates within seconds.

With appliances with a standing pilot you should never smell the gas. We have a gas fireplace for heat and there's no odor at all.

I agree with your gas man that the offgassing of some things when they're brand new can smell like gas. Our stove was like that, and it made me crazy even though I watched DH check and double check the connections and use the little meter to check for NG in the air. My daughter figured it out; she said the refrigerator smelled the same way when it was new, but I guess I didn't notice then because we were in an all-electric house when we bought it.

But since you don't have anything new that might explain the smell, I'd call the gas company again and have another technician out. Better safe than sorry with potential gas leaks.

 

[Geoff_M]

Natural gas is scented with methyl mercaption. Ironically, people with limited senses of smell who cannot detect rotting meat often times also cannot detect methyl mercaption with their noses. The human body naturally produces the substance and it is excreted in feces... and thus the mental linkage when you smell it. In another "fun fact", methyl mercaption is what makes "asparagus pee" smell as it is a byproduct of the digestion of that vegetable.

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

Natural gas is scented with methyl mercaption. Ironically, people with limited senses of smell who cannot detect rotting meat often times also cannot detect methyl mercaption with their noses. The human body naturally produces the substance and it is excreted in feces... and thus the mental linkage when you smell it. In another "fun fact", methyl mercaption is what makes "asparagus pee" smell as it is a byproduct of the digestion of that vegetable.

That would explain why a previous poster had smelled "gas" and it was a sewer smell. Eeewwww!

 

[Gigi22]

OP, we had a very minor gas leak a few years ago that my DH was able to detect outside our house by smell alone. It was so faint that the gas co. technician had to put a diluted soap solution on the gas line connection pipes (near our meter) to detect it, the equipment the technician had was not sensitive enough to detect the leak. The leaking gas caused soap bubbles to appear--the same test you use on your gas barbecue to check connections.

You may want to ask the gas co. to send the technician over to test around all the connections in your house using the soap solution.

Another thought occurs, if your garage is attached to your house--do you have things like a gas-powered lawn mower or snowblower stored in your garage? If all the valves on your gas-powered equipment are not fully shut off, you can get the smell of gas coming into your house from your garage. Of course, this would not be a smell of mercaptan, but a gasoline type of smell.

 

[GeorgeG]

Natural gas is scented with methyl mercaption. Ironically, people with limited senses of smell who cannot detect rotting meat often times also cannot detect methyl mercaption with their noses. The human body naturally produces the substance and it is excreted in feces... and thus the mental linkage when you smell it. In another "fun fact", methyl mercaption is what makes "asparagus pee" smell as it is a byproduct of the digestion of that vegetable.

Yes, natural gas is odorless without the mercaption. The control center I used to run also dispatched for the gas department and sometimes the pipeline company would add too much mercaption to the system and that would generate a lot of calls. In short order, the gas companies would be notified, but it's possible your gas serviceman had not yet gotten the word, if that's what happened. Another thing that can happen is a leak from the underground lines outside can migrate along the pipes and work it's way into your house. In any event, if you still smell the gas, keep calling until you get an answer or a leak is found and fixed. Although rare, a serviceman may not discover the leak on the first inspection.