An HVAC emergency is a problem that puts safety, health or the house at risk if it waits: a gas smell or carbon monoxide alarm, no heat when someone at home can’t tolerate the cold, water coming through a ceiling from an attic unit, a burning smell, or a breaker that trips every time the system starts. In Tiburon, Belvedere and Mill Valley, most emergency calls come on cold, damp nights when a furnace or heat pump quits. Our phone is answered 24/7, and after-hours visits carry no overtime charges.
Is it an emergency?
| Situation | What to do now | Urgency |
|---|---|---|
| Smell of gas | Leave, don’t operate switches, call 911 or your gas utility from outside | Emergency services first |
| Carbon monoxide alarm | Get everyone outside and call 911 | Emergency services first |
| No heat with elderly, infants or someone unwell at home | Keep everyone in one warm room, call us | Emergency |
| Water through a ceiling from an attic or upstairs unit | Turn the system off, catch the water, call | Emergency |
| Burning or electrical smell, smoke from equipment | Turn the system off at the breaker, call | Emergency |
| Breaker trips each time the system starts | Leave it off, don’t keep resetting, call | Urgent |
| No heat, house holding a safe temperature | Close doors to unused rooms, call | Same day is usually fine |
| AC out on a warm day | Close blinds on the sunny side, call | Usually same day |
The first ten minutes
- Gas or CO: don’t look for the source. Get out, and call from outside.
- Water: switch the system off. A full drain pan or a clogged condensate line is the usual cause, and running the system keeps the water coming.
- Electrical smell: turn off the breaker for the furnace, air handler or outdoor unit, and leave it off.
- No heat: check the thermostat, the furnace switch and the filter. If that doesn’t bring the heat back, don’t reset the furnace again and again; repeated lockouts point to a fault that needs testing.
- Iced-up heat pump or AC: switch cooling off, run the fan to thaw the coil, and leave the outdoor unit alone.
How an emergency call works
- Call the 24/7 line. Describe what’s happening; we go over any safety steps on the phone.
- Dispatch. A technician is assigned and you get an arrival estimate.
- Arrival and diagnosis. The technician makes the system safe first, then finds the fault.
- Repair. Upfront pricing before work begins. The regular diagnostic fee applies, with no extra charge for the hour.
- Follow-up. If a part has to be ordered or more work is needed, we restore what we can that night and schedule the rest.
Emergency repairs carry the same 90-day warranty as any other repair.
Why emergencies happen here
Heating carries the load in southern Marin, and the first cold, wet weeks of the season expose weak igniters, flame sensors and heat pump defrost controls. Homes with air handlers in the attic can leak water through a ceiling when a drain clogs. Many of these calls are preventable: a fall HVAC maintenance visit tests the parts that tend to fail first.
For the details of specific failures, see furnace repair, heat pump repair, heating repair and AC repair. The local pages cover emergency HVAC in Tiburon, Belvedere and Mill Valley, and our contact page lists the phone line and office hours.