These guides answer the heating and cooling questions homeowners in Novato, San Rafael, San Anselmo, Larkspur and Sausalito ask us most: how to look after the equipment, what a warning sign means, and when a job needs a technician. Each guide takes one question, answers it at the top, then walks through the details.
What you will find here
- Maintenance routines: what to clean, how often, and what a professional visit adds.
- How the equipment works: plain explanations, so a technician’s findings make sense.
- Safe checks: what you can look at yourself before you call, and where to stop.
- Cost drivers in words: what moves the price of a job up or down.
The guides are written for homes here, with mild winters, cool fog near the water, warmer summer days inland, and a mix of furnaces, heat pumps, central air and ductless mini-splits.
How to use the guides
Start with the guide that matches your question. If your system has already stopped working, our problem pages go symptom by symptom and help you judge how urgent it is. If you already know what you need, the services pages explain how a repair or installation works, and our HVAC maintenance page describes a tune-up visit.
The ground rules we write by
- Safety first. Every check we suggest can be done with the power off and without opening sealed or electrical parts. If a step calls for tools you do not have, leave it to a technician.
- No guessing at prices. Costs depend on your equipment and what the diagnosis finds, so the guides explain what affects the price. You get an itemized price after the diagnosis, before any work begins, with no hidden fees.
- Honest advice. We explain what failed and recommend only the repairs you need.
When to stop reading and call
Call (650) 567-5385 if you see scorch marks or smell burning, find water pooling around the equipment, or the system trips the breaker again after a reset. If you smell gas, leave the home first and call 911 or your gas utility from outside. A real person answers 24/7 and helps you decide how urgent the problem is, and same-day service is usually possible when you call before noon.