Not every no-heat call or weird noise is a true emergency, and not every homeowner knows the difference until they’re standing in a cold house at 11 p.m. wondering if it can wait until morning. Some of it can. Some of it genuinely can’t, and a few of these situations are about safety, not comfort. Here’s how we’d sort it if it were our own house, and what’s worth checking yourself before you pick up the phone. Plenty of the time it turns out to be a routine HVAC repair rather than a true emergency, and this guide is here to help you tell the difference.
True HVAC Emergencies
No Heat in Freezing Weather
A cold house is uncomfortable. A cold house that stays cold for many hours in freezing weather is a pipe-freeze risk, especially in older SouthCoast and South Shore homes with pipes running through unheated basements, crawlspaces, or exterior walls. If it’s below freezing outside and your heat has been out for more than a couple of hours, that’s an emergency, not a wait-until-Monday call, particularly in a home with elderly residents, infants, or anyone with a health condition that makes cold exposure risky. If the fix turns out to be more involved than a quick reset, that’s when a same-day furnace repair visit matters most.
No AC During a Heat Wave With Vulnerable People in the House
Heat is a real medical risk for the elderly, infants, and anyone with heart or respiratory conditions, and it gets worse on Cape Cod and near the water where summer humidity makes the heat index feel worse than the thermometer says. If your AC or heat pump fails during a heat wave and someone in the house is vulnerable, treat it as an emergency and say so when you call. If it’s specifically a heat pump acting up, our heat pump repair page covers what that visit typically involves.
A Gas Smell: Leave the House and Call the Gas Company
Natural gas is odorless on its own, so utilities add a sulfur-like, rotten-egg smell specifically so leaks get noticed. If you smell gas, don’t look for the source, don’t flip any light switches, don’t use your phone inside, and don’t try to shut off an appliance. Get everyone out of the house first. Once you’re outside, call your gas utility’s emergency line, Eversource or National Grid depending on your town in Massachusetts, or Rhode Island Energy if you’re in Rhode Island, and call 911 if the smell is strong. Call us after the utility and the fire department have cleared the property, not before.
A Carbon Monoxide Alarm Going Off
Never ignore a CO alarm and never assume it’s a false alarm because you don’t feel anything. Get everyone outside immediately, call 911, and let the fire department confirm it’s safe to re-enter before anyone goes back in. Symptoms of CO exposure, headache, dizziness, nausea, confusion, can be subtle at low levels and severe at high ones. This is not a situation to wait out or troubleshoot yourself.
Water Leaking From Your Equipment
Water pooling around a furnace, air handler, or boiler, or dripping from a ceiling below an attic air handler, is usually a clogged condensate line or a failed condensate pump on the cooling side, or a pressure relief or piping issue on a boiler. It’s not typically a life-safety emergency, but it can cause real water damage fast, especially through a finished ceiling, so it’s a same-day call, and if it’s safe to do so, switching the system off at the thermostat or the emergency switch until we arrive can limit the damage. If the water turns out to be coming from a plumbing line rather than the HVAC equipment itself, our guide on 24-hour plumbing emergencies covers that side of it.
A Burning Smell
A burning or electrical smell coming from any HVAC equipment is a potential fire risk and should be treated seriously. If it’s safe to do so, shut the system off at the breaker, not just the thermostat, and don’t run it again until it’s been looked at. If you see smoke or an actual flame, that’s a 911 call first.
A Breaker That Keeps Tripping
A breaker that trips once might be a fluke. A breaker that keeps tripping every time you reset it is telling you something is drawing too much current or shorting out, and repeatedly resetting it isn’t a fix, it’s a fire risk. Stop resetting it and call.
What to Check Before You Call
A few things take thirty seconds to check and either solve the problem outright or help us diagnose it faster once we’re on site.
The Thermostat
Check that it has power, batteries if it uses them, and that it’s actually set to heat or cool rather than sitting on a schedule override or vacation mode from months ago. It sounds obvious. It’s also the single most common no-heat and no-cool call we get.
The Filter
A badly clogged filter can choke off airflow enough to trip a safety switch or cause an evaporator coil to ice over, especially on a system that hasn’t had a filter change in a while. If you can see daylight through it, it’s fine. If it’s gray and matted, that might be your whole problem.
The Breaker Panel
Look for a tripped breaker labeled for your furnace, air handler, or outdoor condenser. If one’s tripped, you can try resetting it once. If it trips again immediately, stop and call us instead of resetting it repeatedly.
The Emergency Switch
Most furnaces and boilers have a red switch that looks like a light switch, usually at the top of the basement stairs or right next to the unit. It’s easy to bump by accident or mistake for the basement light. If your heat suddenly stopped and nothing else seems wrong, check whether that switch got flipped off.
The Condensate Float Switch
Central AC and many air handlers have a small safety float switch in the condensate pan or drain line that shuts the system down if the pan fills up, specifically to prevent a ceiling leak. It’s a very common cause of a sudden “no cool” call in summer. If your drain pan has water sitting in it, that switch doing its job is very likely why your AC stopped, and clearing the clogged line is usually a straightforward fix.
What Happens When You Call Armus
That immediate response is what our emergency HVAC service is built around. We answer the phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with a live person, not a voicemail that gets checked in the morning. Tell us what you’re seeing, and if any of the checks above changed anything. We’ll tell you honestly whether it sounds like something that needs a truck tonight or something that can safely wait for a scheduled visit, and what the applicable rate is before anyone drives out, since an after-hours emergency call is billed differently than a scheduled weekday appointment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a gas smell always an emergency?
Treat it as one every time. Get out of the house, don’t operate any switches or your phone indoors, and call your gas utility’s emergency line from outside. It’s always better to have it turn out to be minor than to wait and find out otherwise.
What should I do if my CO alarm goes off?
Get everyone outside right away and call 911. Don’t try to find the source yourself and don’t go back inside until the fire department says it’s safe. Symptoms of carbon monoxide exposure aren’t always obvious, so don’t wait for someone to feel sick before you take the alarm seriously.
Will my pipes really freeze if the heat is out?
It depends on how cold it is outside, how long the heat has been out, and where your pipes run. In older homes with pipes in an unheated basement, crawlspace, or exterior wall, freezing can happen faster than people expect once the house drops well below room temperature in sub-freezing weather. If it’s below freezing and your heat has been out more than a couple of hours, don’t wait it out.
Why does my AC leak water, and is it an emergency?
Most commonly it’s a clogged condensate drain line or a failed condensate pump, which is why many systems have a float switch that shuts the unit down before it overflows onto your ceiling or floor. It’s rarely a life-safety issue, but it can cause real water damage quickly, so it’s worth a same-day call rather than letting it sit.
Do you charge extra for after-hours emergency calls?
Emergency and after-hours calls can carry a different rate than a scheduled weekday appointment. Call 508-521-9477 and we’ll tell you the applicable rate for your situation before anyone drives out, so there’s no surprise on the invoice.