Top-rated independent heating and cooling across Tampa Bay and Florida's Gulf Coast
Your CO Alarm Went Off
If your carbon monoxide alarm is sounding right now, stop reading and get everyone outside, then call 911 or your gas utility from outside the building. That comes first, every time. Once the house has been cleared by the fire department or the utility, we can look at the heating equipment that may have caused it. This guide walks through the first five minutes and what happens after.
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From the technicians at Pinellas Air & Heat
The First Five Minutes: What To Do Right Now
1. Get everyone out of the building, including pets. Go outside or to an open garage door, not another room. 2. From outside, call 911 or your gas utility's emergency line. Both will respond to a CO alarm. 3. Do not go back in for phones, chargers or paperwork. 4. Count heads. If anyone has a headache, nausea, dizziness or confusion, tell the dispatcher so they can send medical help. 5. Stay outside until the fire department or the utility tells you the air is clear. Carbon monoxide has no smell and no colour, so you cannot judge it yourself. If you also smell gas, treat it the same way and leave immediately.
What Not To Do
Do not open windows before you leave. It sounds helpful, but airing the place out can lower the reading enough that responders struggle to find the source, and it keeps you inside breathing bad air longer. Do not pull the batteries out of the alarm to quiet it. Do not restart, relight or fiddle with a furnace, water heater or any gas appliance. Do not run a generator, grill or vehicle in a garage or near an open door or window, even for a minute. Do not try to find a leak yourself with a lighter or a soapy solution. Gas and combustion work needs a technician with test instruments, not guesswork.
Where Carbon Monoxide Usually Comes From
CO comes from anything that burns fuel, so the usual suspects are gas furnaces, gas water heaters, gas ranges, fireplaces, generators and cars idling in a garage. In heating equipment, the common causes are a cracked or rusted heat exchanger, a blocked or disconnected flue, a bird nest or debris in the vent, or a burner running dirty because the combustion air is restricted. In our region a lot of homes have little heating equipment at all, which is exactly why a rarely used gas furnace or a neglected water heater flue can go years without anyone looking at it. Age and lack of use both matter.
When To Call Us, And What We Do
Call us after the fire department or gas utility has cleared the building and shut down whatever they suspect. We handle heating repair across Florida and Georgia, and on a CO call we test the equipment rather than guess. That means inspecting the heat exchanger, checking the flue and vent connections for blockage or separation, measuring combustion where the equipment allows, and confirming the blower and return side are not pulling air where they shouldn't. If the heat exchanger is cracked, we tell you plainly and we do not put the unit back in service. If the cause is elsewhere, we say so and point you to the right trade.
Preventing The Next Alarm
Keep working CO alarms on every level and near sleeping areas, and replace the whole alarm at the end of its service life, usually seven to ten years depending on the model. Test them monthly with the button. Have any fuel burning heating equipment inspected once a year, before the first cold snap, not during it. Change your filter on schedule so the blower isn't starved. Keep the outdoor unit and any vent terminations clear of leaves, mulch and nesting birds. Never use a grill, generator or camp stove indoors or in a garage. If your alarm chirps in a pattern you don't recognise, check the manual before assuming it's a false alarm.
Your CO Alarm Went Off — straight answers
My alarm went off once and then stopped. Do I still need to call someone?
Yes. A single alarm that clears usually means CO was present and then dispersed. Have the gas utility or fire department check the home, then have the heating equipment tested so the source gets found before cold weather.
Can a CO alarm give a false alarm?
It can, usually from an alarm past its service life or a low battery chirp mistaken for an alarm. Treat every alarm as real, get out and call for help, then sort out whether the device needs replacing.
Can an electric heat pump or AC system produce carbon monoxide?
No. Carbon monoxide comes from burning fuel, so an all electric heat pump or AC system does not make it. A gas furnace, gas water heater, fireplace or idling vehicle in the garage can.
How it works
- Step 1
Tell us the symptom
Call or fill out the quote form and describe what changed. Warm air, short cycling, a clicking outdoor unit, water on the floor. Details help us load the right parts before we drive out.
- Step 2
We diagnose on site
A technician checks the thermostat, airflow, electrical side, refrigerant behavior, and the coil. Coils foul fast in coastal air, so we look there early. You get the finding in plain language before work starts.
- Step 3
Repair and verify
We make the repair, then run the system and watch it. Supply temperature, drain flow, amp draw, and how the house actually feels. If the fix needs a follow-up part, we tell you that day.
- A real person answers
- Open 7 days
- Written quote before work starts
Why homeowners call us
- Humidity gets equal weightCold air alone is not comfort. On slab homes and older condos, a system can hit temperature and still leave the rooms clammy. We look at run time, airflow, and drainage so the house dries out instead of just chilling.
- Coastal wear is expectedSalt air chews condenser fins and contactors. We check for corrosion, weak capacitors, and fouled coils as part of the diagnosis, because in this region those are causes rather than afterthoughts.
- Heat gets attention tooFurnace repair, heat pump reversing valve trouble, and heat strip failures all come through in the cooler months. Georgia homes lean on heat harder than Florida homes, and we service both ends of the region.
- No mystery invoicesYou hear what failed, what it takes to fix, and what we found nearby that may fail next. If a repair does not make sense on an old system, we say so instead of stacking parts on it.
- All major brands, gas & electricCarrier, Trane, Lennox, Goodman, Rheem, York and more, as an independent company.
- Straight answersIf a system is not worth repairing, we say so, often right on the phone.
About this guide
Safe checks done and it still misbehaves? That's a real fault
Bring your notes from the checks to the call and booking takes no time.
- A real person answers
- Open 7 days
- Written quotes
- All major brands
- Gas & electric
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