HVAC Repair in Florence, SC
Homes here need heat from November through March and cooling from May through September. If your system quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Florence County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Ten months of work most years
In Florence County the heat runs November through March and the cooling runs May through September. That is ten months of the year your system is doing one job or the other, with only a short break in between. Most homes here heat with electricity, so the same heat pump working through winter nights is the one that switches over to cool the house all summer.
Summer afternoons averaging 90°F push the compressor for hours at a time, and that steady load is what wears out a capacitor or shows up as a slow refrigerant leak. Winter nights average 36°F, cold enough that a heat pump leans on its backup heat strip to keep up, and a failing strip means the air coming out feels barely warm. Storms add to the load on the equipment outside. Ninety-seven damaging wind events over the past ten years mean outdoor units here take a real beating, and a bent fan blade or a loosened panel can be enough to keep the system from starting.
- 5 months
- November through March, your system heats
- 5 months
- May through September, it cools
- 36°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 90°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- Why is my heat not working?
- Most of the time it comes down to power, fuel, or airflow. Check your thermostat is set to heat and the temperature is above room temperature, then check the breaker for your system. Most homes here heat with electricity, so a tripped breaker or a blown fuse in the air handler is a common cause. If the thermostat and breaker are fine, a dirty filter can choke off airflow enough to shut the system down on a safety switch, and that is worth checking before anything else.
- Why is my system running but not cooling the house?
- If air is moving but it is not cold, the problem is usually a dirty filter, a frozen coil, or low refrigerant. A clogged filter starves the coil of airflow, and the coil ices over instead of cooling. Once that happens, you will feel warm air even though the system is running, and it needs to thaw before a contractor can find the real cause. Low refrigerant from a leak causes the same symptom and will not fix itself, so if the filter is clean, that is the next thing a contractor will check.
- What can I check before calling for HVAC repair?
- Start with the thermostat. Make sure it is set to the right mode and the temperature is actually calling for heat or cooling, since a setting bumped by accident looks like a system failure. Next check the breaker box for a tripped breaker, especially after a storm. This area sees frequent wind events, and a power blip can trip a breaker without any other damage. Last, pull the filter and hold it up to a light. If you cannot see light through it, replace it, since a clogged filter causes both heating and cooling problems and is the easiest thing to rule out yourself.