Smoke in my house

sternn

I woke up this morning and went downstairs to discover that 2 of the rooms downstairs were full of smoke. Panic.... Went around and checked all the plugs, nothing. The smell was like the smell you get when you blow out a candle. We do light candles in one of the rooms where the smoke was, but checked them all and no burn marks or anything. Anyone have any ideas?

'scorthy

No smoke alarms! :mad:
How old is your wiring? If it was electrical I think it would be confined or localised to the area of the defective appliance and would smell more like urea or a fishy smell. Television transformers that blow emit a toxic odour of nitric oxide but then your tv would not be working (have you checked?)...was it left on.
Other than the above...what were the kids at? :rolleyes:

sternn

We do have smoke alarms!! Just not in the kitchen, 2 outside the kitchen, and 2 upstairs. The smell is strong of candles. The part that has the smell was extended 2 years ago...

cossworxenergy

get a sparks to check your connections. Sounds like a loose connection which causes arching. Arching is when current travels through the air to the most available conductable material. ie your cable is loose and the current instead of flowing through a binded connection will when loose try and flow through the air through the metal this causes arching. Signs of arching are blackness at a connection smoke and indeed fire!!!

RoundyMooney

If you're googling OP, it's "arcing".

Aside from that, the above is true, in that loose connections generate heat, enough of which will generate combustion. If you had smoke, something was burning. You don't need a qualification to knock off the power and pull the two sockets you suspect and look at them, in daylight of course, in the unlikely event you're online this late.

Not using the sockets in question is a natural reaction, however they are most likely linked on to others, so this is not a solution.

Find the cause first!

Also, you may have smoke alarms, but they have failed you, (closed doors aside). Make sure you have adequate coverage. Nothing at all wrong with battery alarms as a retrofit, once you maintain them.

RoundyMooney

Btw, heat alarm in the kitchen. Battery powered at this stage as I say, and is fitted and enshrined in the regs rather than a smoke alarm to reduce nuisance alarms when you burn the rashers.