(OK, now that the thread title got your attention...)
My apartment is poorly insulated, but for the most part, it doesn't bother me very much -- Southern California is usually pretty temperate, and I get heat from all of the electronics running anyway. This time of year CAN get pretty cold, though, so in the past I would run the heater for an hour or so when I got home to warm the place up, and let it run overnight on exceptionally cold nights.
However, the first time I tried to use my heater this year, it immediately set off the smoke alarm. I shut off the heater and removed the battery from the alarm while the particles dissipated, and haven't used it since. This happened a couple of weeks ago -- I've been meaning to investigate, but since I've been REALLY busy and not home for most of that time, I've been able to put it off...until now. We've been having a bit of a cold snap (well, cold for us, anyway), and when I woke up this morning, my apartment was 55 degrees...needless to say, I don't want to deal with THAT situation again.
My first guess -- not knowing a damn thing about heaters -- is that it is burning off dust or other particulates which have accumulated over the past year. If so, then running it for a couple of hours one afternoon ought to do the trick and get it back to normal. However, if there IS something screwy going on...then I run the risk of burning down my apartment, or more likely, having the damn smoke alarm go off every time. I do NOT want to pull the battery on the smoke detector over the long term for obvious reasons.
I can also ask the landlord to investigate, but I think the maintenance guy is kind of creepy, and since I would almost certainly not be home when he came over, I'm not that comfortable with that idea. If possible, I'd like to try to solve this on my own first.
Anyone else ever had this problem? If so, what was your fix?
My apartment is poorly insulated, but for the most part, it doesn't bother me very much -- Southern California is usually pretty temperate, and I get heat from all of the electronics running anyway. This time of year CAN get pretty cold, though, so in the past I would run the heater for an hour or so when I got home to warm the place up, and let it run overnight on exceptionally cold nights.
However, the first time I tried to use my heater this year, it immediately set off the smoke alarm. I shut off the heater and removed the battery from the alarm while the particles dissipated, and haven't used it since. This happened a couple of weeks ago -- I've been meaning to investigate, but since I've been REALLY busy and not home for most of that time, I've been able to put it off...until now. We've been having a bit of a cold snap (well, cold for us, anyway), and when I woke up this morning, my apartment was 55 degrees...needless to say, I don't want to deal with THAT situation again.
My first guess -- not knowing a damn thing about heaters -- is that it is burning off dust or other particulates which have accumulated over the past year. If so, then running it for a couple of hours one afternoon ought to do the trick and get it back to normal. However, if there IS something screwy going on...then I run the risk of burning down my apartment, or more likely, having the damn smoke alarm go off every time. I do NOT want to pull the battery on the smoke detector over the long term for obvious reasons.
I can also ask the landlord to investigate, but I think the maintenance guy is kind of creepy, and since I would almost certainly not be home when he came over, I'm not that comfortable with that idea. If possible, I'd like to try to solve this on my own first.
Anyone else ever had this problem? If so, what was your fix?
He's like, 40! Ick. I don't wanna know what's going through his head. In addition to asking me out to coffee he patted my tummy and told me to call him "daddy." No fucking joke.