I live in a small apartment in an old building that has built in heating and air. I turned off my heat last night, but when i turned it back on this morning, within one minute my fire alarm went off. I went into my living room (where most of the vents are, the thermostat and the alarm) and it smelled like something was burning. I turned off the heat and the alarm stopped. I opened some windows and the smell is dissipating, but what caused this?Is it safe to turn my heat on?
Dust in the furnace. Yes, but let the landlord know it happened
Sounds like some schmutz of some kind or other got into your system and settled on the heat exchanger or heat coils of your heating system. Then when you turned it back on, that stuff got hot and generated enough smoke to either set off the smoke alarm built into your heat (I have that all through the buildings here where I work) or else the smoke alarm in your residence. If you're at all familiar/comfortable with heating devices you could open yours up and see if you can see what's causing the problem. Just for starters, change the filter (it's probably due anyway), get a flashlight and peer around inside there and see what's up. It's rare, but sometimes you get a mouse or something that manages to get into the ductwork, and next thing you know he's flash-fried on the heating coils. THERE's a smell you don't forget quickly. If you can't find it, try running the heat for short periods, cook off the debris while trying to minimize the smoke generated. I really don't have much better advice than that, short of disassembling the system and actually finding the source of the problem. That's a lot of work for most folks. Good luck with it.
