I have natural gas heat (nothing else, just heat). Every now and then I'll smell the faint oder of natural gas for just a few seconds, then it's gone.
I only smell it when I'm sitting at my desk which happens to be above the furnace under the house. There is a loose baseboard with a slight draft
But the oder comes and goes so quickly that I cannot confirm if its coming from under the house or not.
I've had my husband and a few other people smell under the house and they said they didn't smell anything. But like I said it comes and goes within seconds.
I have a carbon monoxide alarm plugged in right where I smell the oder and it has never gone off, even when I smell it.
I know what natural gas smells like and this oder smells like natural gas to me.
Since no one else smells it and the alarm has never gone off, my husband does not want to have anyone come out to check it.
Could there still be a leak and the alarm not go off? Or is there something
Else that smells like natural gas that I don't know about?

EDIT I just turned my heat off because I smell it every time it comes on, but this alarm I have is not going off. Is there a reason for this?

Thanks

CO alarms do not sense raw natural gas. They sense CO only after the gas has been burnt in the furnace. So your detector will not set an alarm for your situation since it was not made for that job.

Tell your husband that he is a fool if the situation (smell of natural gas) is not checked out RIGHT AWAY. Usually local gas companys will check for a leak for free but you might have to pay a HVAC company to perform the repair. Natural gas can and will go BOOM in the proper concentration..

Hello - it could be a problem with a older furnace not firing properly - timing -
Or the starter is acting a bit slow
A furnace will first burge which means blow out whatever is left in the fire box
Then it will send fuel which is soon followed by the spark or fire
Perhaps your burning to rich of fuel or spark is to late or needs to be cleaned
Either way have a HVAC mechanic take a look

Well I am convinced now more than ever that something is wrong.
I posted this last year around this time

That entire cold season I smelt faint brief seconds of gas when sitting at my desk and that's when I put the alarm there (which now I know was useless). The smell is stronger this time.
I never had the situation in the above link checked out because the alarm never went off.

I know that was very foolish but I'm calling the gas co. right now to see if they're open on Sundays.

Yep you have a leak somewhere for sure.

OK, just had a guy from the gas co. come check it out.
He took a look at the furnace and said that the vents were not connected or glued and one was about 2 feet away from where it was supposed to be.
His exact words were "you're lucky it didn't kill everyone".

After hearing that I forgot all the other questions I was going to ask him
About smelling the gas oder and the pipe line to the house killing the bushes.

Would the furnace venting under the house cause the distinct smell of natural gas?
Or would it cause an orderless gas since the gas has already been burned?
Because I definitely smelled natural gas but forgot to ask if what he discovered was the cause of it.

And is a leak in the pipe line to the house as dangerous as this?

He turned it off and tagged it for the HVAC (I think that's what he said).

My husband is making calls now trying to get an hvac to come out.

Would the furnace venting under the house cause the distinct smell of natural gas?


NO

would it cause an orderless gas since the gas has already been burned?


Yes

And is a leak in the pipe line to the house as dangerous as this?


Could be

You said you smelled natural gas so you still need to fix that part.

The disconnected pipe under the house could have killed everyone for sure. That is CO a colorless and odorless silent killer that you read in the paper about. You were lucky BUT get the natural gas leak checked out and fixed also.

When the hvac guy got here, he fixed the venting and went around trying
To smell gas, in the house, under the house and checked the one in the attic as well. He didn't smell any gas.

The gas guy did have a spray bottle labeled "fix a leak" on it.
I don't know if he did anything with it or not.

But I am smelling a very quick and faint natural gas oder right when the unit turns on and only here at my desk.
Much fainter than last night and this morning.
It's so faint and so brief it makes me wonder if I'm really smelling it or not.

I guess I'll be turning it off again tonight and calling again tomorrow.

Thanks for taking the time and answering my questions, I appreciate it.

hvac1000
I'm unable to privately thank you so I'll do it here. Hope you don't mind.
Because of my ignorance of the severity of natural gas, CO, and wanting to avoid a stressed husband because of money situations,
I probably would have not called the gas Co. until you mentioned that the alarm was not going to detect raw gas.

Even though I had 2 different problems going on, making the call about the gas led to the discovery about the CO.

We had another Hvac guy come out today and he spent a lot of time fixing the entire problem.
He was not satisfied with the work done by the emergency on call guy that came out yesterday from a different co.

He called the gas company out to work with him as well.

The levels of CO that were first detected seeping into the house from below was in the killing range.
The people who came out today had a lengthy conversation with me on the subject.

It ended up being a beautiful day that day so I opened all the windows, probably what saved us,
But had I not made the call there's no telling what could have happened that night once I closed the windows had I not called.
I did not know CO was coming in the house. The guys today checked the alarm and it was not working properly and not going off when it should have.

All is completely fixed now and I just wanted to give you a big thank you for all your time spent here advising people and me - in this case your advice made a huge difference.

I am just glad you are all OK. Everyone here tries there best to help and remember this situation the next time you think there might be a problem. Quick action can save lives and in this case it might have been yours or a loved one. Have a great holiday season.

It smells like exhaust in my kitchen. It may be because the dryer is running right now, but it doesn't usually smell like this in the kitchen. Nobody else can smell it but me :0/ I know I can smell it though, its stronger today. Our water heater is electric and the stove is electric. No gas so I don't understand what it could be?

I have a CO and natural gas alarm which is not detecting a gas smell in my house. People who come in to our home can smell it as well. What's up with the alarm?

Hi. I think I'm having an almost same issue too! When I read AkaeTrue's post I thought, "wow this is me!" It's driving me crazy and I seem to be the only one who smells it.It comes and goes and I can't stop thinking about it. Here's a little background to my situation:
I keep getting small hints of what I think is a very faint natural gas odor in my basement, the kitchen and several other areas of the house. I called the gas company 3 times. The first time they came out, they checked the meter and sealed two small leaks. The second time I thought I smelled gas coming out of my furnace room, but the second guy found nothing but another tiny leak at the meter and fixed it. A few weeks later I'm still getting these anoying intermittent gusts of rotten egg gas smell around my basement ceiling and kitchen. So I made yet another call and the third guy said there was nothing, but suggested that if an animal found it's way inside my house and died, then the decompusure would release methane and that's what I would be smelling. However I've been told methane has no smell, which is why they place that foul smelling addative to begin with. Between that time I called a plumber and asked about a tiny hint of gas around the temp control box of my water heater and he tried the bubble test and used the detector and still nothing. I have central air and this subtle smell seems to be just floating around in what I can only describe as sporadic puffs; as if the oven was on with its door open. When I shut down the furnace and opened windows to air out the house yesterday I didn't smell it anymore. However once I turned it on again I began to smell it some time later. I have installed natural gas detectors in places where I thought I smelled it (The kitchen window, and directly below in the basement but they are reading 0. The thing that drives me crazy is my sense of smell has always been very acute to such things and my wife doesn't seem to notice it if at all. A different problem wouldn't drive me to lose sleep but when it involves something that smells so much like a flammable fuel I can't help to try and get to the root of this issue and at best try to rule that out, and see what else may be causing this.

I found a horizontal furnace door on the wrong way and it would cause the gas burners to flutter and burn yellow at startup (incomplete combustion) while also allowing the firebox air to be pulled into the return air for the house. Once the airflow of the house became established the flames would burn blue and look OK.
Turned the door 180 degrees to it's proper position and it sealed the return air properly.