Home emergency playbook
No heat during freezing weather
Conservative first steps for homeowners before cleanup, repair, or contractor dispatch. When safety is uncertain, leave and call first.
Immediate steps
- Move infants, older adults, medically fragile occupants, and pets to the warmest safe room or another heated location.
- Check thermostat settings, batteries, filter blockage, and one labeled breaker or furnace switch from dry footing.
- Open vanity and kitchen cabinet doors around vulnerable pipes, and let known freeze-prone faucets trickle if water is available.
- Call an HVAC technician the same day if heat does not restart after one normal reset.
Do not do this
- Do not heat the home with an oven, stovetop, grill, charcoal, or unvented fuel appliance.
- Do not repeatedly reset a tripping furnace, boiler, or heat-pump breaker.
- Do not ignore frozen-pipe risk in exterior-wall bathrooms, crawlspaces, and laundry rooms.
Who to call
- Call 911 if anyone is injured, trapped, in medical distress, or if fire, shock, collapse, or active crime is present.
- Call the utility emergency line before private repair when gas, electric service, public water, sewer main, or buried lines may be involved.
- Call an HVAC contractor for combustion, heating, cooling, boiler, or ventilation diagnosis after immediate hazards are controlled.
Damage mitigation
- Close unused rooms, hang blankets over drafty doorways, and keep interior doors open where pipes need warmth.
- Use listed electric space heaters only on hard floors, plugged directly into wall outlets, and watched continuously.
- Write down indoor temperature, outdoor temperature, error codes, and failed reset behavior for the technician.
Prevention
- Schedule heating service before overnight temperatures regularly fall below freezing.
- Keep spare filters, thermostat batteries, and CO alarm batteries available during winter.
- Use monitored low-temperature alerts in vacant homes, rentals, and second homes.
Typical cost band
Usually moderate for controls or ignition repairs; high for major equipment replacement during extreme weather.
Insurance note
Freeze damage can depend on whether reasonable heat was maintained; document thermostat setting, service calls, and temporary heat steps.
Related ProFix resources
HVAC Technician emergency guideTrade-specific dispatch, utility-first, and after-hours cost guidance.Troubleshooting encyclopediaSymptoms, maintenance intervals, contracts, and warranty norms.National FAQHiring, licensing, scams, permits, and DIY boundaries.Cost calculatorPlan the permanent repair after the emergency is controlled.