An HVAC emergency in Almaden Valley, San Jose (95120, 95123), is most often an air conditioner that stops during a hot spell, a furnace that will not light on a cold night, or a smell of gas or burning near the equipment. Urgent calls are taken 24/7, after hours and on weekends included. On the phone we help you make the house safe, work out whether it needs a visit tonight or can wait for the morning, and get a technician scheduled. You are told when a technician can come before anything is booked.
First: is anyone at risk?
- You smell gas. Leave the house now. Don’t switch lights or appliances on or off, and don’t start a car in an attached garage. Call 911 or your gas utility from outside. We repair the equipment once the gas has been made safe.
- A carbon monoxide alarm goes off. Get everyone out, call 911 and stay out until responders say it is safe. The furnace and its venting then need checking before the heat goes back on.
- A burning or electrical smell from the furnace or air handler. Turn the system off at the thermostat and at its breaker, then call.
- Water coming through a ceiling below an attic unit. Turn the system off to stop the condensate, catch the water and call.
Call tonight, or wait until morning?
| Situation | What we suggest |
|---|---|
| No cooling in a heat wave, with someone elderly, very young or unwell at home | Call now |
| No cooling, but it is cooling down outside | Open windows once it is cooler outside than in; book a morning visit |
| No heat on a cold night, with vulnerable people at home | Call now |
| One zone, or one of two systems, out while the rest works | Usually fine until morning |
| Outdoor unit hums but the fan doesn’t turn | Switch the AC off; a morning visit is usually fine |
| Breaker trips again after one reset | Leave it off; call now if it is your only cooling or heat |
Larger homes, more than one system
Many Almaden Valley homes are large, some over 3,000 sq ft, and are often cooled by two systems or by one system with zones. That changes both the emergency and the repair. If one of two systems fails, move the household into the part of the house that still cools or heats. If both stop at once, check the main breaker and whether the power is on before anything else: two separate systems rarely fail together.
In a zoned system, a floor or room that gets no air while the rest is fine usually comes down to a stuck zone damper, a zone thermostat or the zone control board, not the whole system. Long attic duct runs in a big house can also come apart and leave one wing warm. Both are worth fixing soon, but neither needs a night call.
Valley floor or hillside
Homes on the warmer valley floor hold the day’s heat well into the evening, so a dead AC there is harder to ride out. On the cooler hillsides, night air can often do the job once it is cooler outside than inside. Hillside homes have their own issue: outdoor units often sit on slopes, terraces or side yards reached by steps. When you call after dark, tell us where the equipment is, whether there is lighting, and about any gate code or dog, so the technician can reach it safely.
While you wait
- In the heat: close blinds on sun-facing windows, run ceiling fans, shut the doors to rooms you aren’t using and drink water. Don’t keep resetting an AC that has tripped.
- In the cold: gather in the warmest room and use only space heaters made for indoor use, well away from bedding and curtains. Never heat the house with a gas oven, range or grill.
- If the AC iced up: leave cooling off and run the fan so the coil can thaw.
- If you have a whole-house air cleaner or a thick media filter, check it. A clogged one can choke airflow enough to freeze the AC coil or make a furnace shut itself off on its high-limit switch.
On the visit
The diagnosis follows the same order day or night: power and controls first, then airflow, then the part that failed. Common parts such as capacitors, contactors, igniters and flame sensors are carried on the truck, so many failures can be repaired on the first visit. You approve the price before any work starts, and the diagnostic fee is waived if you go ahead with the repair.
If the failure points to an old system near the end of its life, the replacement conversation can wait for a calmer day, and estimates for new systems are free. A yearly tune-up or a maintenance plan catches weak parts before a heat wave or a cold snap. For more, see emergency HVAC service and the emergency HVAC cost guide; our Almaden Valley page covers the rest of our work in the neighborhood.