What genuinely needs someone tonight
No heat with infants, elderly, or medically vulnerable people in the house. A gas smell. A carbon monoxide alarm. A burning or electrical smell from the equipment. A breaker that trips again immediately after being reset. Those are calls we want at 2am rather than at 9am.
Some things can wait until morning without anyone suffering for it: a thermostat with dead batteries, one room cooler than the rest, a rattle you have heard before. We will tell you which one you have on the phone rather than dispatching a truck you do not need.
Before we arrive
Check the thermostat first: set to HEAT, setpoint above room temperature, fresh batteries. Then find the service switch near the furnace, which looks like an ordinary light switch and gets flipped off by accident more often than you would think. Reset the breaker once, and if it trips again leave it off.
If you smell gas, do not touch switches. Leave the house and call the gas utility from outside. If a carbon monoxide alarm sounds, get everyone outside first, then call 911, and leave the system off until it has been inspected.
Staying warm safely until we get there
Electric space heaters are fine used carefully: plugged straight into a wall outlet rather than an extension cord, kept well clear of bedding and curtains, and switched off overnight. Never use an oven, a range, a grill, or an unvented fuel-burning heater to warm a room, because those put carbon monoxide into the house, and that is the mechanism behind most of the serious harm that follows a Houston freeze.
What happens when we get there
The same diagnosis we would run at noon, faster and in a colder house. We take the furnace through its ignition sequence, find where it stops, measure rather than guess, and give you a price before we start. Where the failed part is one we carry, the heat comes back on that visit.
When a part cannot be had at midnight we say so plainly. During a regionwide freeze we triage by risk rather than call order, and we would rather tell you that you are third in line than promise a window we cannot hold.
Safe things to check before we arrive
- ThermostatSet to HEAT, setpoint above room temperature, and fresh batteries if it takes them.
- The furnace switchUsually a light switch near the unit or at the attic entry, and easy to knock off by accident.
- One breaker resetReset it once, and if it trips again leave it off and tell us when you call.
- The filterPull it and look at it, since a loaded filter can shut a healthy furnace down on high limit.
- Gas smellLeave the house without touching switches and call the gas utility from outside.
- Carbon monoxide alarmEveryone outside first, then call 911, and leave the system off until it is inspected.