Florida winters get cold enough to matter — especially overnight. When your heat pump, heat strip, or furnace isn't producing heat, we diagnose and fix it fast.
Most Florida homes use one of three heating setups. The most common is a heat pump — a system that works as an air conditioner in summer and reverses cycle to pull heat from outdoor air in winter. The second is a straight-cool air handler with electric heat strips — simple resistance heating that works fine for Florida's mild winters. The third is a gas furnace, less common here but present in some older homes and commercial buildings.
Each system has its own failure points. Heat pumps can fail to reverse cycle, lose refrigerant charge (which affects both heating and cooling), or have reversing valve failures that leave them stuck in one mode. Heat strips can burn out individual elements or trip breakers from age or overload. Gas furnaces can have igniter failures, cracked heat exchangers, or pressure switch issues.
We diagnose all three types and carry parts for the most common failures. Most heating repairs in Sarasota can be completed the same day we diagnose them.
Free estimate before any work begins. Flat-rate pricing — no hourly surprises.
In Florida, a non-functional heater in December or January can mean 40°F nights. We treat heating calls with the same urgency as AC calls in summer.
Heat pumps are the dominant heating technology in Florida, and they work extremely well here — Florida's mild winters rarely push outdoor temperatures below the point where heat pump efficiency drops significantly. But they do have a learning curve for homeowners used to gas furnaces or electric furnaces in other climates.
A heat pump in heating mode delivers air that feels around 90–95°F at the register — warm, but not the 120–130°F blast you'd get from a gas furnace. This is normal and correct. If your heat pump is running and the house is warming up slowly, that's probably fine. If it's running and the air from the vents feels the same temperature as room air, the system is not in heating mode or there's a refrigerant or reversing valve issue — call us.
Most heat pumps also have auxiliary heat strips that kick in when outdoor temperatures drop below a threshold. If your system is running strips constantly even in mild weather, something is wrong with the heat pump's heating function and it's defaulting to expensive resistance heat. That's worth diagnosing.