Heating Repair in St. Pete Beach, FL

Census Bureau survey estimates for 2019 to 2023 count 4,827 occupied homes in St. Pete Beach. Electricity is the heating fuel in an estimated 4,618 of them. Utility gas heats an estimated 109, and bottled or tank gas an estimated 12. These are estimates with a margin of error, but the picture is plain: nearly every home here heats with electricity.

Electric heat comes in more than one form. The Department of Energy's Energy Saver guide says electric heating includes central forced-air electric furnaces, as well as wall-mounted or baseboard heating. It describes a heat pump as collecting heat from the air, water or ground outside and concentrating it for use inside. The same machine does double duty as the central air conditioner.

Our guide on how to tell if you have a heat pump helps you work out which one you have, and furnace vs. electric strip heat covers the furnace side.

If your home is one of the few here on natural gas, the city's utilities page names TECO Peoples Gas as the natural gas utility. The gas warnings further down this page apply to you.

NOAA's 1991 to 2020 climate normals for its St. Petersburg airport station put the January normal low at 55.3°F. The station is in St. Petersburg, not on the island, so treat these as a guide rather than a reading for your street.

At that station, nights at or below 50°F average 8.7 in January, 4.1 in December and 3.7 in February. In every month from April to October, the normals show no nights that cold. Nights at or below 40°F average 1.2 in January, and nights at or below freezing average 0.1.

These are long-term averages, and a single winter can bring more cold nights or fewer. Our page on when to turn on the heat covers the timing.

These checks need no tools and no open panels. Stop at anything that feels unsafe.

1. Thermostat settings. Set the mode to Heat and the set temperature above the current room temperature. See our thermostat settings guide.
2. The air filter. Duke Energy says a dirty air filter makes a system work harder, which uses more energy and can increase costs. Look at the filter and replace it if it is clogged. Our guide to HVAC air filters covers sizes and direction.
3. Vents, returns and the outdoor unit. The Energy Saver guide says to make sure warm-air registers are not blocked by furniture, carpeting or drapes. Clear return grilles too, and move anything stacked or blown against the outdoor unit.

If a breaker for the heating system has tripped, leave it off and call a licensed contractor. Do not open the air handler, the furnace cabinet or the outdoor unit, and do not touch wiring or refrigerant lines.

If the whole home has lost power, the city's utilities page lists Duke Energy's outage line as 800-228-8485.

A heat pump can have electric resistance heat as its backup. The Energy Saver guide calls heat pumps the most efficient form of electric heating. It advises against manually setting back a heat pump's thermostat if that makes the backup electric-resistance heating come on, because this type of heating is more expensive.

Our pages on emergency heat and auxiliary heat explain those thermostat settings.

Gas heat

Natural gas has no smell of its own. Peoples Gas adds an odorant that gives it a "rotten egg" odor so a leak can be noticed. If you smell it, get everyone out of the building, report it to 911, and then call the Peoples Gas 24/7 hotline at 877-832-6747. Do not try to find or stop the leak. Avoid open flames, and do not switch lights or other electrical devices on or off.

Carbon monoxide

The CDC lists gas- and oil-burning furnaces among household items that produce carbon monoxide. It advises battery-operated or battery back-up CO detectors near every sleeping area. It also advises having the heating system and other gas-burning appliances serviced by a qualified technician every year. The most common symptoms it lists include headache, dizziness and weakness. See carbon monoxide detector placement.

Electric heat

If an electric system smells of burning, do not open panels to look for the cause; call a licensed contractor.

If you use a space heater until the repair, the U.S. Fire Administration says to keep anything that can burn at least 3 feet from all heat sources, space heaters included. It also says to turn space heaters off when leaving the room or going to bed. Our guide to space heaters compares the common types.

Duke Energy suggests leaving drapes or blinds open on sunny winter days so the sun can warm the house. It also suggests running ceiling fans clockwise in winter, which pushes warm air back down into the room.

Census estimates count 8,244 housing units in St. Pete Beach. About 6,122 of them were built before 1980, and the 1970s are the largest single decade, at an estimated 2,484. An estimated 4,160 units are in buildings with five or more units, including 1,946 in buildings of 50 or more. Detached single-family homes account for an estimated 3,229.

Condos and apartments. Have the association's contact details ready when you call.

Seasonal homes. An estimated 2,572 of the city's housing units were vacant for seasonal, recreational or occasional use when surveyed. If you open a closed-up home in winter, start with the thermostat check above.

Older buildings. When the heat fails in an older building, ask that the heating side be checked as carefully as the cooling side.

The Energy Saver guide says your contractor should give you information on the safety and cost effectiveness of repair versus replacement. It also lists system options, fuel types, required permits and building code compliance, and calculations for proper sizing.

The same guide suggests considering replacement when a heat pump or air conditioner is more than 10 years old, or a furnace more than 15. It adds equipment that needs frequent repairs while energy bills rise, and rooms that are too hot or too cold. The U.S. Fire Administration advises having heating equipment cleaned and inspected each year by a professional.

Blume gives a written, upfront price before any work starts and shows repair and replacement side by side. Blume does not sell equipment a building does not need. When replacement is the answer, the new system is sized with an ACCA Manual J load calculation and Manual S equipment selection, and financing is available through Synchrony Bank. Refrigerant work is done by EPA Section 608 certified technicians, the federal refrigerant-handling credential. See when to replace a heat pump.

Blume Mechanical Service, LLC is a Class A licensed Florida air conditioning contractor (license CAC-1822618) and is fully insured. We are brand-agnostic and service all major manufacturers' equipment. Our office is at 2840 West Bay Drive #114, Belleair Bluffs, FL 33770, and our core service area is Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties. Our St. Pete Beach service page lists the other services we offer on the island.

What to have ready when you call

• Whether your heat is electric or gas, if you know.
• What the thermostat is set to, what it reads, and whether it has an Emergency Heat setting.
• Whether a breaker for the heat has tripped.
• Any smell, and whether it faded or stayed.
• Whether the home is a house or a unit in a condo or apartment building, and the association's contact if it is.
• When the heat last worked.