Smoke smell in house.

Probably has more to do with atmospheric conditions than the wood, maybe along with a gas appliance like a water heater or dryer creating a negative draft. Is there another chimney near your woodstove chimney?

Any chance that you are smelling smoke from a dirty burning neighbor? And it just happened at the same time. Co-inky-dink?

EatenByLimestone said:

Did you have a storm come in just after you smelled the smoke?

Matt

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Matt could you elaborate on how a storm plays into the draft. I'm thinking it has something to do with the drop from a low pressure system, but that is as far as my brain will go.

Thanks

Dale.Z said:

EatenByLimestone said:

Am I understanding correctly that you do not smell smoke with the oak but did when you burnt the ash?

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Yes that's exactly what happens. I know its sounds strange but thats why I asked the question.

Probably has more to do with atmospheric conditions than the wood, maybe along with a gas appliance like a water heater or dryer creating a negative draft. Is there another chimney near your woodstove chimney?

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This might be something but how does running the gas dryer effect my woodstove?

Any chance that you are smelling smoke from a dirty burning neighbor?

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No this wouldn't be it for my nearest neighbor is about 5 acres away and I am the only wood burner.

Thanks Dale

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Anything that removes air from a house and sends it outdoors can create negative draft. Could be a draft hood over a cook stove, a furnace, vent fan in a bathroom. It pull air out and fights with the air the stove needs to burn. Kind of like sucking on both ends of a straw (ahhh, the good ole single days)

It might be just smoke from your start-up too. I've noticed this before. When I do my first fire of the day, I tend to leave the door open at first as I get the first small splits to reignite on the hot coals, then I shut the door. A little bit of smoke invariably gets into house rather than up the chimney (and I mean very little). Then it gets rolling and you shut the door. If you stay in the same room, you might barely notice any smell, but, let's say 1/2 hour later you go outside to move some wood around or get more splits, your "palate" - so to speak - is cleansed by the cold, outside air, then you go back into the house and you can distinctly make out the smell of the wood. Could be that, perhaps.

EatenByLimestone said:

That's about it. I've seen smoke go from the top of my chimney over 25 feet high straight down to my neighbor's house. If the wind was shifted it could easily go back into yours.

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That's the first thing I thought of.

Early this heating season I awoke to the smell of smoke in the house. This was a new stove to me, so I was a bit apprehensive to begin with. I jumped up and ran down stairs and there was a definite smell of smoke in the basement but not right next to the stove. There were a few small fragments of wood chips I didn't brush off after filling it for the night, but they give a toasted wood smell, not a smoke smell.

I grabbed my LED headlamp and went outside. As soon as I opened the door I was greeted by the smell of smoke, more so than the waft of aroma I usually might catch. I shined the light up at the roof and I could see it was burning a little smoky, but it was rising fast straight up into the air.

Nearest neighbor is over half a mile away in one direction and a mile in the other, so I must have been smelling my own smoke, but I couldn't see it come down in the dark. Best I can figure is a pressure related thing on an unseasonably warm night (mid 50s overnight low temp), kinda foggy too. It was being brought into the basement by the draft of the stove and the smell was rising up the stairs through convection currents. I never actually saw any smoke, but just the smell had me a tad nervous given it was a new install.

This happens now and then. Most likely it is the smoke from your stovepipe either being blown around and sucked back into the house with the replacement air that leaks in or, more rarely but possible, the smoke settling due to an inversion or something. My money's on the wind or air movement. It just happens now and then.

At our house, couple times a year there will be winds shifting around [variable winds, in the parlance] which will change direction and blow some diluted smoke toward the house and we'll get a little smell of it.