The first cold front hits at 2 a.m., and the heater you have not touched since last March blows cool air, smells like burning or never starts. In Central Florida, most homes heat with electricity, usually a heat pump with electric strips, so the system sits idle for months, and weak parts stay hidden until the coldest night. West Air Conditioning fixes that before it ever happens. We repair, replace and tune up heat pumps, heat strips, furnaces and thermostats for homes in Ocoee, Winter Garden, Windermere and Orlando, and the seven services below show which one fits your problem.
A heat pump heats your home by moving warmth from the outdoor air indoors, and in Florida it is usually paired with electric backup strips. When it fails, the usual complaint is a system that runs while the air from the vents feels cool. The causes range from a thermostat set to the wrong mode to a dirty filter, ice on the outdoor unit or low refrigerant. A Heat Pump that is not heating usually has one of six causes, and a technician checks them in a set order, starting with the ones that are safe to test yourself before you call.
Anything involving refrigerant, electrical parts or the outdoor coil belongs to a trained technician. If the outdoor unit is silent, humming without starting or coated in thick ice, switch the system off at the thermostat and call.
Heat strips are electric elements inside the indoor air handler that add warmth when the heat pump alone cannot keep up. Thermostats label this backup heat “AUX” or “EM HEAT.” They are meant to run during the coldest hours, not all day, so a strip that fails leaves the house cold on the nights you need it most, while one that runs constantly can send the bill climbing. In February 2026, the utility FPL warned, as WFLX reported, that running backup heat for more than 12 hours can add up to $15 a day. FPL does not serve most of our area, so treat the figure as an example, not a quote. Constant backup heat can point to a fault, and knowing what Auxiliary Heat does at each thermostat setting helps you tell a fault from a cold snap.
Heat strip repairs usually involve a failed element, a tripped breaker, a bad sequencer or relay, or a thermostat that calls for backup heat when it should not. A technician can test each part in turn and tell you clearly which one failed, so you pay for the repair that is needed and nothing else.
A furnace makes heat by burning gas or by running electricity through resistance elements, and it pushes that heat through the ducts. Few Central Florida homes have a gas furnace. The Energy Information Administration’s household survey found electricity was the main heating fuel in 5.35 million of Florida’s 8.06 million homes, about 66 percent, while natural gas was the main fuel in 0.42 million, about 5 percent. That is why heat pumps and electric strips matter more here than furnaces.
If your home does have a furnace, common faults include a dirty filter, a failed blower motor, an ignition problem on a gas model and a worn electric element on an electric one. The safety rule is simple. If you smell gas, leave the home and call the gas utility or 911 from outside, and do not use switches or the thermostat first. A furnace that will not light or shuts itself off is not a do-it-yourself repair.
A heating replacement makes sense when the system is old, has failed repeatedly or costs more to repair than it saves. In a Florida home, that usually means replacing the heat pump and air handler together, because one outdoor unit does the cooling and the heating. A new HVAC System Installation runs from the first visit to the final check.
Three things decide how well a new system performs. The first is size: ask whether the quote comes from a load calculation of your home, not from the size of the old unit. The second is the ductwork, since leaky or undersized ducts waste the heat that a new system makes. The third is the installation itself, including the permit and the warranty. A system that is too large turns on and off in short cycles, and one that is too small never catches up on a cold morning.
A heating tune-up is a visit before the cold season to test the parts that have not run since last winter. Central Florida systems may go months without heating, so a failed capacitor, a loose wire or a dusty element often goes unnoticed until the first cold night. During a visit, the technician checks the thermostat, the filter, the electrical connections, the heat strips, the blower and the outdoor unit in heat mode.
Booking a seasonal maintenance visit in October or November means any repair happens on a mild afternoon, not at midnight in a cold snap. It is also the cheapest time to learn whether your heat strips work, because you can test them without waiting for a freeze. Before the visit, replace the air filter, clear furniture from around the vents and the indoor unit, and write down anything odd you noticed last winter, such as a smell, a noise or a room that stayed cold. A short list like that saves the technician time and helps find an intermittent fault.
A tune-up also deals with the smell many owners notice. The Seminole County Fire Department says that a burning-dust smell the first time you run the heater is common, because dust settles on the heating element over the summer. The department’s rule is the part to remember: if you see smoke or flames, get everyone out and call 911. Running the heat for a few minutes on a mild afternoon, while you are home and awake, lets any smell show up well before the cold front does. If it fades within a short time, it was most likely dust, but a smell that lasts or returns is a reason to switch the system off and book a visit. A Burning Smell the first time you run the heat usually has one of five causes, and only some of them are harmless.
The thermostat decides when backup heat starts, so a wrong setting can cost as much as a failed part. A thermostat set to heat but reading the wrong temperature, running on dead batteries or wired incorrectly will heat too much, too little or not at all. We test, replace and set up thermostats, including programmable and smart models, and we check that the settings match your type of system.
Small habits matter as much as hardware. Raising the setting in steps of no more than two degrees helps keep a heat pump from calling for backup heat, which is the advice that comes with the FPL warning above. Duke Energy’s winter energy tips add two more. Sealing air leaks around doors and windows can save 10 to 20 percent of heating costs, and changing the filter lets the system move air freely. Duke also notes that December and January lows in Florida can fall to the 30s and mid-40s, which is when these habits pay off.
Heating emergencies in Central Florida tend to arrive on the coldest night of the year, when every technician is busy. Call right away if the system will not start, the air is cold, you smell burning that does not fade, a breaker keeps tripping, or the outdoor unit is buried in ice. For emergency HVAC service on a cold night, call us at (407) 739-1667.
While you wait, switch the thermostat to off if you see smoke, smell burning or hear loud noises from the unit. Keep warm with blankets and layers, close off unused rooms and avoid using an oven, a stove or a generator indoors to heat the home. Those are fire and carbon monoxide hazards, and no cold night justifies the risk.
Most Central Florida homes are better served by a heat pump, because electricity is the main heating fuel in about two of every three Florida homes. A furnace makes sense where natural gas is already connected, and the home has a cold-climate heating load, which is rare here. Choosing between a Heat Pump or a Furnace in Florida comes down to five differences, and a short decision table sorts them out.
If you have gas lines and a working furnace, repair is often reasonable. If you have a heat pump with strips, keep it serviced and learn how backup heat works. If you are replacing a failed system, ask each contractor to price both options in writing.
The signs are easiest to spot on a mild day in October. Run the heat for fifteen minutes and watch for these:
Any one of these is a reason to book a visit, and the last one in particular often points to heat strips running too much. Rooms that stay cold while others are warm often point to Leaking Ductwork instead of the heater.
The technician starts by asking what you noticed and when it started, then tests the thermostat, filter, airflow, electrical parts, heat strips and outdoor unit. You get a plain explanation of what failed and a written quote that separates the diagnostic fee, the part and the labor. Nothing is replaced until you approve the price. If the system is old, we can also price a replacement alongside the repair, so you can compare the two numbers on the same page.
We serve homes and businesses across Central Florida, with technicians based around Ocoee, Winter Garden, Windermere and Orlando. The heating needs are similar across the area: heat pumps with electric strips, ductwork in hot attics, and systems that run mostly for cooling and only a few days a year for heat. That mix shapes how we work. We check the cooling side of a heat pump while we are there, because the same outdoor unit does both jobs, and a fault found in October is a fault you will not meet in May. In practice, one visit can cover the heat, the thermostat and the ducts, so you do not need to book three separate appointments.
If you are in Windermere, the same services apply, and the same phone number reaches the same team. Whether you call from Windermere or Winter Garden, we ask the same questions first: what you noticed, when it began and how old the system is.
Some things that look like trouble are not. A short burning-dust smell on first use is common. Steam rising from the outdoor unit on a cold morning can be the heat pump defrosting itself, and a thin film of frost on the coil is part of the cycle, as HVAC contractor Del-Air has said. What is not normal is smoke, a smell that lasts or returns, thick ice that does not melt, cold air from the vents or a unit that cycles on and off every few minutes. Between visits, a yearly service visit helps keep these normal signs from turning into real faults.
Heating in Central Florida comes down to a few cold nights that matter a great deal. The seven services above cover what usually goes wrong, and most of it is cheaper to catch on a mild October afternoon than at 2 a.m. West Air Conditioning can test your system now. Request a Heating Estimate or call (407) 739-1667 and tell us what you noticed.
Yes, a few nights each winter. Duke Energy notes December and January lows can reach the 30s, and most homes rely on electric heat to stay comfortable.
Dust that settled on the heating element over the summer burns off when the heat starts. The smell should fade quickly, but smoke or flames mean leave and call 911.
No. Auxiliary heat starts automatically when the heat pump needs help, while emergency heat is a manual setting that uses only the backup strips and often costs more.
