No heat, no cooling, or a system down overnight
Calls answered at any hour, jobs scheduled by urgency
No heat in January is a different problem from no heat in October. The difference is what the weather is doing to your plumbing.
Unity Heating & Air Conditioning is owner-run out of Macungie. Calls are answered around the clock, and jobs go on the schedule by urgency.
Nobody here promises a truck in the driveway within the hour. What you get is a person to reach at any hour and a straight answer.
What is urgent at 8 F, and what can wait
The winter design temperature across Lehigh and Northampton counties is near 8 F, near 11 F in Bucks County. An unheated house cools fast, and plumbing in exterior walls, crawlspaces and unheated garages can freeze and split. A burst line costs far more than the heating repair.
Worth a call tonight
- No heat near or below freezing outside, especially overnight
- A gas smell or a carbon monoxide alarm sounding
- Water from a boiler, a condensate line or around the furnace
- A burning smell, smoke, or a breaker that trips when the system starts
- An oil burner locking out repeatedly, or an oil smell in the basement
Uneven heat, a noisy blower that still moves air, a thermostat that forgot its schedule, or no heat in mild weather can wait for a morning appointment.
Check this before you call
Five minutes here settles a lot of after-hours calls, and none of it means opening equipment.
- The thermostat: set to Heat or Cool, setpoint past room temperature, fresh batteries
- The service switch: an unlabeled light switch by the furnace or at the top of the basement stairs, flipped by mistake
- The breaker: flip it fully off and back on, since a tripped breaker can still look on
- The filter: hold it to a light, and if nothing passes through, replace it
- The condensate float switch on a high-efficiency gas furnace or an air handler, which stops it when the drain plugs
- The oil tank gauge, since an empty tank is a common no-heat call
- The reset button on an oil burner: press it once, and only once. Repeated resets pump unburned oil into the combustion chamber and turn a service call into a bigger, more dangerous job.
Safety comes before the service call
If you smell gas, leave the house first. Do not flip switches, and call from outside: the gas utility’s emergency line or 911. That comes before any HVAC contractor.
A carbon monoxide alarm means the same: everyone into fresh air, call 911, and do not go back in. Never heat a house with a generator, a grill or an oven. Generators run outdoors, away from windows and doors, never in a garage.
What an after-hours visit looks like
You reach a person, describe the symptom, and the job gets placed by urgency. A cold house with an infant or elderly resident, or one at risk of frozen pipes, goes ahead of a warm house with a noisy blower. No promised arrival window.
Diagnosis comes first, and at 2 AM some parts are not available. Overnight the goal is often safe heat running now, with the proper repair in daylight. If a system is past repair, full replacement is a planned job, not a midnight decision.
Summer emergencies
Cooling here is sized against a 91 F summer design temperature. Losing air conditioning is uncomfortable for healthy adults and genuinely risky for infants, adults over 65, people with heart or lung conditions, and anyone on medication affecting temperature regulation. Confusion, hot dry skin or no sweating is heat stroke, a 911 call. Meanwhile, close blinds on the sun side and spend the hottest hours somewhere cool.
If the air handler blows weak, warm air and the line at the outdoor unit is iced, turn cooling off and set the fan to ON so the coil thaws. It takes hours, and chipping at ice damages it. Low airflow or low charge is usually behind it, and low charge means a leak, on a heat pump as much as an air conditioner.
Frequently asked questions about emergency service
It is 10 PM and the heat is out. Call now or wait?
Call now if it is near freezing outside, if anyone in the house is frail, or if you smell fuel. Wait for morning if the weather is mild and the house is holding a safe temperature. Either way the phone is answered.
What should I do while I wait?
Close off unused rooms, leave the thermostat alone instead of cycling it, and open cabinet doors under sinks on exterior walls so plumbing gets house heat. Space heaters plug straight into a wall outlet, never a power strip, with three feet clear.
My AC quit and it is 95 degrees. Is that an emergency?
It depends who is in the house. For a healthy adult it is uncomfortable and can wait a day. For an infant, an older adult or someone with heart or lung conditions, heat is a medical risk that moves the job up. Say so on the phone.
Call for emergency HVAC service
Call Unity Heating & Air Conditioning at (267) 644-9516 at any hour, or send non-urgent details through the contact page. Emergency work runs out of Macungie, and the service areas page lists the towns.
