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HVAC Repair in Palo Alto
Same-Day Service, Flat Pricing
Furnace, air conditioning and heat-pump service across Palo Alto — including the Eichler tracts where a conventional ducted system was never an option. Same-day appointments, flat pricing agreed before we start, and 24/7 response when the heat or the cooling fails outright.
- 25+ Years
- Licensed & Insured
- 24/7 Emergency
4.9/5 Rating
2,000+ Reviews
Licensed & Insured
CA Licensed
Same-Day Service
24/7 Emergency
25+ Years
Bay Area Experts
6,000+
Jobs Completed
Simple Process
How It Works
Call Us 24/7
Reach us anytime at
(408)539-6936.
Same-Day Dispatch
A licensed technician arrives at your home, often same day.
Diagnose & Fix
Upfront pricing before work begins. No hidden fees, ever.
100% Satisfaction
We stand behind every job with our satisfaction guarantee.
Professional HVAC Services in Palo Alto
HVAC Repair and Installation in Palo Alto
Palo Alto is an unusual HVAC town. A large share of the housing stock was never built to take ducts at all, and the city has pushed electrification harder than almost anywhere else in the Bay Area. Both facts change what the right system actually is.
United HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical works across Old Palo Alto, Professorville, Crescent Park, Community Center, Midtown, College Terrace, Barron Park, Greenmeadow, Green Gables and the Palo Alto Hills. Every job carries California contractor license #1061226 and $2 million in liability insurance, and every technician is background-checked.
The Palo Alto Problem: Homes That Cannot Take Ducts
- Eichlers. Palo Alto has some of the largest Eichler tracts anywhere — Greenmeadow, Green Gables, Royal Manor. Flat roof, no attic, no crawl space worth using, and original radiant heating cast into the slab. When that radiant loop finally fails there is nowhere to run ductwork, which is why ductless mini-splits are the standard answer here. Done properly, the heads are placed to keep the clean lines these houses are known for.
- Pre-war homes in Professorville and Old Palo Alto. Built from the 1890s to the 1920s, often with hydronic or converted gravity heating and no ductwork at all. Retrofitting ducts into a house like this means losing closet space and ceiling height; a multi-zone heat pump usually costs less and works better.
- Single-pane glass and low insulation. The mid-century tracts were built with vast expanses of single glazing. Any system sized from square footage alone will be wrong — these houses lose and gain heat far faster than the floor area suggests, and an oversized unit short-cycles and never dehumidifies.
- Original 1950s and 60s equipment still limping along. We still find working furnaces older than the homeowner. They are usually running at a fraction of modern efficiency and are worth replacing on economics alone, before they fail in January.
Electrification and CPAU Rebates
Palo Alto runs its own utility — City of Palo Alto Utilities — rather than buying from PG&E, and it has been more aggressive than most cities in moving homes off gas. In practice that means heat-pump conversions here are often better supported than elsewhere in the South Bay, and it is worth checking current CPAU programmes before replacing a gas furnace like for like. We will tell you what a heat pump would cost alongside the straight replacement so you can compare the two honestly rather than being pushed at one.
What We Handle
- Emergency heating and cooling failures — 24/7, nights and weekends included.
- Air conditioning repair, replacement and installation.
- Furnace repair and replacement — including ignition, heat exchanger and control-board faults.
- Heat pumps — full changeovers and dual-fuel setups.
- Ductless mini-splits — single and multi-zone, the usual solution for Eichlers and pre-war homes.
- Radiant floor heating — diagnostics and alternatives when an original Eichler slab loop has failed.
- Ductwork inspection, sealing and replacement where ducts do exist.
- Seasonal maintenance — the thing that actually prevents the January and July emergency calls.
Upfront Pricing, No Trip Charge
You get a flat written price before anything is touched, not an hourly meter. Estimates are free, there is no trip charge in Palo Alto, and the number on the quote is the number you pay. On replacements we size the system by a proper load calculation rather than by floor area — in a single-glazed Eichler that difference is the whole job.
No heat, or no cooling, today?
Call (408) 539-6936 and you will reach someone who can tell you when a technician can be at the door.
For plumbing, electrical, and other local services, explore all home services in Palo Alto.
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If you're not completely satisfied with our work, we'll come back and make it right — free of charge. That's our promise to every customer.
Signs You Need HVAC Repair in Palo Alto
Reviews
What Our Customers Say
Pasha (technician) was very helpful. We had a clogged drain and were unable to clear it ourselves. He arrived and fixed the drain and was very clean and polite. Left everything as it was before he arrived. Highly recommend.
Pasha was very professional, he gave us a couple of options and finished the plumbing job very quickly.
As a busy homeowner I truly appreciate their ability to work around my schedule and needs. My garbage disposal recently died, and Neo was professional and offered me different options. He had the parts I needed and was able to complete the job quickly and cleanly.
Why Choose United HVAC
Got Questions?
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, and this is the most common request we get in Greenmeadow, Green Gables and Royal Manor. An Eichler has a flat roof, no attic and no usable crawl space, so conventional ductwork is not an option. The answer is a ductless mini-split, single or multi-zone, with the heads and line sets placed to keep the clean sightlines the houses are known for.
First we find out whether the loop itself has failed or the boiler and controls have. A boiler or control fault is repairable. A leaking slab loop is a much bigger decision, and in most cases a multi-zone heat pump costs less than tearing up the slab and gives you cooling as well, which the radiant system never did.
All of them — Old Palo Alto, Professorville, Crescent Park, Community Center, Midtown, College Terrace, Barron Park, Greenmeadow, Green Gables, Palo Alto Hills and Stanford-adjacent streets. There is no trip charge inside the city.
In Palo Alto it is worth pricing seriously. The city runs its own utility rather than PG&E and has moved harder on electrification than most, so heat-pump programmes here are often better supported. A heat pump also gives you cooling from the same equipment. We quote both the like-for-like furnace and the heat-pump conversion so you can compare rather than being steered.
Probably because it was sized from floor area. The mid-century Palo Alto tracts have huge expanses of single-pane glass and little insulation, so they gain and lose heat far faster than the square footage suggests. An undersized unit never catches up; an oversized one short-cycles. A proper load calculation is the fix.
Yes. Most requests placed before mid-afternoon are handled the same day, and we run 24/7 for complete heating or cooling failures — which in practice means the first cold snap and the first real heatwave.
Fifteen to twenty years for a furnace, twelve to fifteen for air conditioning, assuming annual servicing. We regularly find original 1950s and 60s equipment still running in Palo Alto; it works, but at a fraction of modern efficiency, and replacing it on your schedule beats replacing it in January.
Usually we advise against it. Threading ducts through a pre-war house means losing closet space, dropping ceilings or boxing in corners, and the result is often still compromised. A multi-zone ductless system typically costs less, preserves the interior, and gives you room-by-room control.
Yes. California contractor license #1061226, $2 million in liability coverage, and every technician is background-checked. The license number appears on your quote.
Estimates are free and there is no trip charge in Palo Alto. You get a flat written price before work starts; if the job turns out to be more involved than it looked, we stop and re-quote rather than running up an hourly bill.
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