Why does my house smell musky when the heat or AC is on?
Question:Last November when we moved into our house, we turned the heat on and noticed a really musky, basement like smell. We thought it'd just wear off after a while since it was the first time turning it on but it still smelled. We also had a lot of nasal/sinus problems but we always have those so I'm not sure if there is any relation. Well, we have our AC on now and it is just as bad. It's so musky smelling and we've noticed that the house is REALLY dusty. I'll dust in the afternoon and by the next morning everything needs to be dusted again. The smell goes away when the heat/AC is off except in the bathroom. In the bathroom against one wall, there is still a musky smell. But on the other side of that wall is the furnace.
We also have to run a de-humidifier constantly or we have what looks like water drippings on our walls.
Someone is coming to look at the furnace this week to see if that's the problem.
What do you guys think? Is it mold? Dirty air ducts? Can mold be inside the furnace??
Answers:
We have a similar issue. I wonder if your house is built on a slab. (meaning, no official basement)
We're getting our AC unit cleaned Monday. I'll see if your question is still open then and let you know what they say to me.
Update: The folks came over and checked out our unit. Our AC coils really needed to be cleaned out, so he did a good job with that. He said that sometimes the musty odor could be coming in from our crawl space. His response to that was to get that tape that has metal (aluminum) on one side and tape up all the seams where the ducts come together. If I were to pay them to do it, they would change $100/hr.
The other thing he suggested was to have the ducts.cleaned if the taping didn't help mitigate the odor.
In terms of dust, if you have a humidifier attached to your unit, you have to change the filter every year. You can get dust from calcium/salt build up and that gets sent through your vents.
Additionally, we have dampers that need to be adjusted in the summer and winter.
I think it may be wise to call an ac/furnace person for a cleaning of your unit. They will be able to tell if you have dampers and such and where the correct positions are for summer and winter.
I hope that helps and gives you some ideas :-)
First thing is to have the ducts cleaned out. Then the furnace itself, with the filter. I change my filter once a month, they are really cheap and keep the ducts cleaner longer.
This problem crops up from time to time in air conditioning.
What usually happens is the indoor evaporator coil can get mold or bacteria growing on it from the moisture it produces during the normal cooling function of the machine. Also the condensate drain pan under the coil can have the same problem especially if the drain flow is inadequate due to lack of enough slope or not having a "u" trap fitted in the drain pipe.
There are anti bacterial products that can be applied to the coil but all this will have to be done by a qualified / experienced A/C technician especially when working out the drainage issues.
The above explanation applies mainly to central ducted systems.
There is more to this but I hope you get an idea as to how you can overcome your problem.
your ac might be pulling in the nasty air from the crawl space or anywhere their is an air leak.
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