Help identifying smell in apartment
Hi,
I’ve been living in a 1 bed 1 bath apartment for about a year. I think the building was built during Covid? Or maybe a few years before. So pretty new building. I’ve been having an issue with a smell. Whenever there is a power outage or I leave windows closed, within like 15 minutes I start to smell this mild but persistent smell that is super hard to describe. It’s pretty dull, doesn’t really smell bad, almost sweetish, kind of like pancakes but very dull, maybe like a paint kind of smell would be the most similar? It doesn’t really smell like any kind of food so I wouldn’t fly away with the “sweet” descriptor.
For some context, I keep the place very clean, I have CO2 and functioning carbon monoxide detectors, I have a single litter box and two cats, but the smell I am smelling doesn’t seem related to that. It’s not like what I smell when cleaning it or if I walk by the litter box. If I leave a window open even a crack, I don’t notice the smell, but if the power goes out then I still notice the smell even if the windows are open. I don’t notice any mold anywhere, and don’t notice a stronger smell around any appliances (if it were to be a chemical leak from an appliance or something).
I’ve been having some health issues the past seven months which I have been unable to diagnose and am trying to make sure there isn’t a chemical exposure or anything which is causing these problems. Does anyone have any advice? Thanks.