Furnace Not Heating in Palo Alto, CA

Furnace Not Heating in Palo Alto

Palo Alto heating splits along housing lines. The Eichler tracts in Greenmeadow, Greer Park, and Fairmeadow were built with radiant-slab heat, copper tubing cast into the concrete, and most of those systems have failed for good because you cannot repair copper buried in a slab. Many of those homes now run forced-air or ductless heat instead. The Spanish revivals in Old Palo Alto and the infill across Midtown run conventional gas furnaces. What stops the heat depends on which you have.

On a conventional gas furnace, no-heat is almost always a single part. The hot surface ignitor cracks, the flame sensor carbons up, the inducer or pressure switch fails, or a clogged filter trips the limit. Palo Alto's marine-influenced climate keeps winters cool but not harsh, so the furnace is not strained, and a failure usually means a worn component rather than a dead system.

If you are in an Eichler whose radiant slab finally quit, the no-heat call is a different conversation entirely. There is no repairing the slab, and the answer is usually a ductless heat pump system sized to the open-ceiling layout. We will tell you straight which situation you are in before anyone talks about money.

Common causes

Cracked hot surface ignitor. On conventional furnaces this is the usual no-heat cause. The element fails open, stops glowing, and the burners never light. We test continuity and replace it, $200 to $350.

Dirty flame sensor. Furnace lights then quits a few seconds later in a loop because the board cannot prove flame. Cleaning the sensor rod usually restores it; replacement is $150 to $200 if pitted.

Failed radiant slab heating (Eichlers). If your Eichler still relies on the original copper-in-slab radiant system and there is no heat, the slab loop has almost certainly failed. It is not repairable. We confirm it is the slab and not a boiler or pump issue, then walk you through ductless replacement sized for the post-and-beam ceilings.

Inducer or pressure switch failure. No proven combustion draft means the gas valve stays closed and the furnace will not light. We test the inducer motor and pressure switch. Inducer replacement runs $400 to $700 on older units.

Limit lockout from a clogged filter. A starved filter overheats the exchanger and trips the limit, shutting the burners down. We find the restriction and confirm airflow rather than just resetting a switch that will trip again.

How we diagnose it

Confirm the heating type first, conventional furnace versus failed Eichler radiant slab, since the fix is completely different.
On furnaces, run the full ignition sequence and test ignitor and flame sensor.
On Eichlers, verify whether the fault is the slab loop, a pump, or the heat source before recommending anything.
Check filter and airflow to rule out a limit trip.
Run CO and inspect the heat exchanger on every gas furnace.

$75 diagnostic, credited toward any repair over $200. You get a written quote before any work begins.

Furnace Not Heating in Palo Alto: common questions

Do you serve Palo Alto from the East Bay, and how fast?

We are based in San Ramon and cover the Peninsula including Palo Alto regularly. Call (925) 999-4095 for a real arrival window. Same-day is best effort, and a cold house with no heat moves to the front of the line.

My Eichler has no heat. Is that an expensive fix?

It depends on whether your Eichler still runs the original radiant slab. If that is what failed, there is no patching copper buried in concrete, so the answer is a ductless heat pump system, which is a project, not a part. If you already have forced air, it is likely just an ignitor or sensor. We put which one it is on the written estimate, and if it is a replacement we check what rebates are actually open at the time and tell you what you qualify for, no promises on programs that have closed.

The furnace lights and then shuts off repeatedly. What is wrong?

That is the signature of a dirty flame sensor. The burners light, but the board cannot prove flame, so it cuts the gas and retries until it locks out. Cleaning the sensor fixes it most of the time. The $75 diagnostic is credited toward any repair over $200.

Nearby and related

Furnace Not Heating near Palo Alto: Menlo Park · Los Altos · Mountain View .

This is usually a furnace repair in Palo Alto job. See our furnace repair overview or the Palo Alto service area.