Scantlings

The SemiSalt household is bothered by an issue in the heating system. We have baseboard hot water heat. The box that converts natural gas to heat, called a boiler in these parts, is emitting an odor. Or odors. It may be part combustion products, and it definitely seems to have a strong undertone of the gas system odorant. This is not to be confused with "smelling gas." We've had the fixit guy here several times. In fact, at one point we had not just him, but his father, his father's friend, and his best friend, all of whom are in the plumbing and heating business. We are not really concerned that we have dangerous situation, and we have at least 4 functioning CO detectors in the house.

The odor gets stronger as the unit runs. My best guess at what's happening is that there is a slight release of flue gas (i.e what should go up the flue) at some point in the on/off cycle, but no amount of taping and plastering of joints has stopped it so far.

So, I'm wondering if a FLIR device might be helpful. In theory, it seems like it might be. If one were free, I'd have tried it already. There is some chance of renting one. Home Depot seems to rent them at some stores, but not at the two closest to us, so it could turn out to require $150 plus some driving. The cheapest possible unit to buy would be about $250-$350, but I think renting a $1K unit with a better display would be more likely to be helpful.

Does anyone have any experience with FLIR, and would a unit designed to for finding HVAC problems in home have a chance of seeing a puff of warm gas against an otherwise complicated IR background?

Actually, there's a FLIR that links to your smartphone.
https://www.amazon.com/FLIR-Thermal-Ima ... 1515&psc=1

Ajax wrote:Actually, there's a FLIR that links to your smartphone.
https://www.amazon.com/FLIR-Thermal-Ima ... 1515&psc=1

I've seen those, but not at that price. I've not seen any reviews that say what the effective resolution is.

I have the same issue, but only on sudden warm winter days when the heat doesn’t run much and there’s a thermal inversion on the chimney (chimley). I once pointed it out to the HVAC tech when he was there for a contract visit and he gave me a pained look and asked if I really wanted the report a gas smell.

Orestes Munn wrote:I have the same issue, but only on sudden warm winter days when the heat doesn’t run much and there’s a thermal inversion on the chimney (chimley). I once pointed it out to the HVAC tech when he was there for a contract visit and he gave me a pained look and asked if I really wanted the report a gas smell.

One thing a plumber mentioned was to get the chimney cleaned.

Since the Panope brought up the subject, I thought I'd drop a note here to say that we had the chimney guys in. They disassembled the ducting from boiler to flue and reassembled it. In the process, they fixed the problem about 95%. We have a situation we can live with while we figure out what best to do for the long run.