Electrical burning smell, help

[jinglebells22]

We moved into a pretty old house 2 years ago and had an electrician come and install some plug sockets as there were a weirdly low number of them considering the size of the house. While here they also changed the fuse box as it was very old.
My ds has his consoles set up in a spare room that still uses the old plug sockets (not sure if this is relevant). Yesterday he was in there for a good few hours and when I went in to tidy up last night I noticed a burning smell like metal/plastic. There is a very overstuffed extension cable in there which I presumed had overheated but the smell wasn't obviously coming from that, it was just in the air. I unplugged everything and then spent all night worrying about an electrical fire.
Is it safe for him to go in there and use his console if we unplug a few things from the extension? Dh says the fuse would trip anything that could start a fire. I have no idea how these things work.
Also plugged a lamp into a socket that's never been used in there recently so it could be that?
We obviously need an electrician but this close to Xmas I'm not sure if we can get one. I'm just wondering if it's safe.

Should also mention that the smell has disappeared this morning so I'm hoping it was just the length of time spent in there plus the silly amount of items plugged in causing an issue rather than some faulty wiring in the walls etc

Can't really tell without getting someone who knows what they are doing to look at it

When I had this it was actually covid and not the electrics at all

When the electrician changed the consumer unit, all the circuits should have been tested. Were they?

I’d get someone in to take a look. Computer equipment shouldn’t be putting a massive load on a power circuit, but it may be a loose connection in a terminal, rodent damage etc. The fuse/circuit breaker does provide some protection, but wouldn’t in the event of arcing, so fire can still be a risk.

I’d also have a sniff at the consoles themselves - a component may have burnt out.

faulty plugs are often fishy smelling, rather than burning, other than plugging in a new toaster or oven etc. can you avoid using that plug until it’s checked. Usually the RCD will trip for safety if the supply is overloaded or there is an electrical fault with the item you have plugged in.

how many devices were plugged into the extension?
does the extension plug say what the fuse is rated at?
and really, you’d need to unscrew the top of the plug just to visually confirm what the rating is.

Are you sure about the smell?
Could it have been the dust from the lightbulb (if it's an old filament one not LED) burning off?

I'm not sure what the smell was or where it was coming from, not at all. I just know that when I went in there was a noticeable burning smell like metal or plastic. Dh came in too and said the same thing so it's not like I was ill or imagining it. My instant thought was that it must be something overheating because ds had been in there on his PlayStation for ages. The extension lead has about 6 sockets and they all had something plugged in I've told him to just leave the TV and the PlayStation plugged in today.

It's an old house so rodent damage and old wiring wouldn't be unusual either but as the smell has gone this morning I'm hoping it's not too serious. Clearly needs looking at but not sure if it's something that can wait until after Christmas.

Recently have had an odd burny smell in the house getting worse and worse. It was a gas leak under the floorboards! So if the smell is anywhere near your boiler or routes to hot water get that looked at. It didn’t smell typically like the gas whiff you get sometimes putting the hob on at all.

This is a good point. Do you have a carbon monoxide detector you could leave near where the smell was smelt?

Just seconding the gas smell suggestion - we had a small leak with a completely different smell for sometime before it was detected - quite sooty

Carbon monoxide detector didn’t pick up our leak

Same here, carbon monoxide is only produced once it’s burned and it was leaking on the way to the boiler before being used. A gas engineer with a gas detecting machine traced it to under the floor. For peace of mind I’d get someone out to do this.

It isn't near the boiler. It's in an upstairs room and the boiler is downstairs by the back door. We do have a carbon monoxide detector nearby. Would a gas leak not be a more permanent smell? This has gone now. Going to monitor it next time ds uses his console. I'm thinking something might have burnt out inside it. Although it's still working so who knows.