Does a fish smell in the house, and is it pungent in a particular area, especially when the lights are on? Is the area away from the kitchen or any kind of organic trash? You may be dealing with an electrical wire burn or similar. While fish smells and similar may be common in the kitchen, they don’t belong in other parts of the home. However, when the insulation on wiring burns, the plastic and rubber can give off a noxious gas smell when it heats and burns.
Wiring Burns, Why?
Electrical burns happen in all sorts of wire connections and locations. They are not limited to just the outlets where things are plugged in. However, because plugs tend to be where electricity translates from the house wiring to the appliance or equipment, then it creates a change in the current. That demand can be high or low, depending on the need. Ideally, the insulation on the wire and the connection handles the load and prevents it from touching anything.
However, where a load is too much, it can heat the wire it travels on. When that happens, the wire can cause things to burn. Insulation is designed to take that beating, but it smells of chemicals when heating up and melting the plastic off. The heat exchange is enough to usually trip a circuit breaker, but not always. Some burns are just hot enough to burn the insulation but do not trigger the safety feature of the breaker.
Don’t Ignore the Problem If It Appears, or Smells
Electrical burns don’t happen and go away; instead, they typically get worse. So, finding the location and source of the burn is critical. That may mean opening up a wall area a bit too if the wire has to be accessed. Further, this isn’t the kind of work that a homeowner can or should handle on their own. Instead, all wiring work is supposed to be handled by a licensed electrician. Most cities and towns have municipal codes requiring the same for any kind of work, construction or major repair in their jurisdiction.
Don’t Ignore Your Senses
Again, if the question comes up, “Why does my outlet smell like fish?” don’t spend time wondering who was cooking red snapper or salmon when you’re nowhere near the kitchen. Instead, start looking up professional help for an electrician.
First, turn off and safely unplug any devices if you can narrow the room where the fish smell is coming from. Then go outside the circuit breaker and turn off the fuse for that room as well if possible. This will cut the power to that part of the wiring entirely, reducing the risk of fire even further.
Second, with the room secured and the power cut off, then it’s time to call in help from an electrician. They will go through the full circuit, perform a diagnosis, and narrow down the cause of the short or burn. It may involve rewiring to remove all the risk entirely and replace it with new wiring.
Home Fires and Electrical Malfunctions
According to the National Fire Protection Association, from the years of 2015 to 2019, over 46,700 home fires occurred. These incidents happened due to electrical malfunctions, bad wiring, wiring failures, hot spots, and similar. Electrical fires often start small, with just a short here, and intermittent contact there. However, all the hotspot needs is eventual contact with something bigger that can catch fire, and then it takes off. Smoke and off-gassing are the two biggest symptoms of a fire risk starting to develop.
Think of the smell as a good thing. You’ve identified a risk in your home before it becomes worse. Now it’s time to bring in a professional electrician and fix things right.
Conclusion
Our homes rely on intricate webs of electrical wiring to power life’s necessities and comforts. But when wires and connections overheat, noxious plastic burn odors insidiously invade unrelated spaces. If an electrical smell like rancid fish perplexingly permeates far from the kitchen, urgent safety issues likely lurk within walls.
Don’t ignore or mask sudden stenches suggestive of scorched wiring insulation. The longer hazardous hotspots smolder unaddressed, the likelier catastrophic fires erupt. Contact licensed electricians to thoroughly investigate and pinpoint failure points. Allow experts to properly replace damaged sections before permanent fixtures ignite.
Protect families by acting quickly when funky outlet odors seem misplaced. Though scent hallucinations happen rarely, trust instincts if smells persist. Preventable tragedies linked to unattended wire faults far exceed unusual neurological events. Schedule assessments even if second-guessing detection abilities. At most, you’ll prevent possible disasters or gain beneficial wiring upgrades. Welcome the smell tipping you off, then empower electricians to neutralize threats. Lives rely on functional, flame-free electrics.
