WHEN PETER LLEWELYN PULLS UP TO A HOME ON ONE OF THE Lowcountry islands and sees a brand-new HVAC unit with copper coils, he knows what’s coming. In six months, maybe a year if they’re lucky, that homeowner will be calling someone about a system failure. “The salt air doesn’t care how much you paid or how new the unit is. It’s going to eat through copper like it’s nothing,” he says.
This is the kind of knowledge that comes from decades in the heating and air industry, and it’s exactly what Llewelyn brings to every job at Carolina Cooling Systems, which services the tri-county area. But more importantly, it’s the kind of knowledge he insists all his technicians have before they ever set foot in a customer’s home.
“We know lack of training is a big problem because we do a lot of clean-up work behind other companies that didn’t do the job right the first time,” Llewelyn says. That problem, he explains, is an industry-wide education gap. Many HVAC technicians in the Lowcountry do not receive formal technical training. Instead, they learn on the job from other techs who learned the same way, perpetuating what Llewelyn calls a cycle of misinformation and bad habits.
It’s not just an abstract concern for him. “It really bothers me because many of these people are seniors or people for whom an HVAC system or repair is a major expense,” he says. “It’s a shame. Big national companies don’t care about local people, but our customers are our neighbors, and we care about them.”
That’s why every Carolina Cooling technician goes through the Trident Technical College Air Conditioning and Refrigeration program. “Educated technicians save a lot of time and money for the customer,” Llewelyn explains.
Take the salt air issue, for example. While Carolina Cooling carries different HVAC brands, Llewelyn is adamant about matching equipment to the location. “If someone is on one of the islands and they don’t get a Trane or American Standard, they’re making a big, expensive mistake,” he says. Those brands use an all-aluminum spline coil instead of copper, which means they can withstand the corrosive coastal environment.
But here’s the twist: That same premium Trane unit would be overkill in Summerville. “It’s a waste of money to install a Trane in Summerville,” Llewelyn notes. “You can get a better deal with a less expensive unit that’s still high-quality.”
Proper sizing is another critical factor that many companies get wrong. “Sure, a bigger unit makes your house cooler, but you’ll get a damp house,” Llewelyn warns. An oversized unit will run for just 15 minutes and cool the house down, but that’s not long enough to pull moisture out of the air. The result is an uncomfortable, clammy environment despite the cool temperature. Carolina Cooling does a heat load calculation on every house to ensure proper sizing.
Llewelyn is generous with practical advice that can save homeowners money. He recommends keeping thermostats set to 68 in winter and 78 in summer and warns against making dramatic temperature adjustments. If you keep your thermostat at 65 while at work in winter to save money, then crank it to 72 when you get home, you’re creating a demand of around 40 amps instead of 12. The better approach is to bring the temperature up one or two degrees at a time.
He also fields frequent calls about steaming heat pumps in winter. “There’s nothing wrong,” he reassures homeowners.
“It’s a default defrost cycle to get the ice off the coil so it
can breathe.”
Perhaps the biggest mistake Llewelyn sees is homeowners skipping preventative maintenance. “I like to say they’re tripping on dollars and picking up pennies,” he says. Like a car, an HVAC system needs regular service, and it’s far cheaper to maintain it once or twice a year than to face a major repair all at once. Plus, neglected units run up electric bills. Customers who sign up for yearly or biennial maintenance plans also receive priority service during high-demand periods, such as heat waves or cold snaps.
When it comes to pricing, Llewelyn doesn’t mince words about the industry’s problems. He’s seen estimates for the same job range from $7,000 at a small company to $15,000 at a national chain. The difference? “The chain companies are usually sending in kids to install who have no experience,” he says. “They’re just charging you more to pay for their TV ads and billboards, and to pay for the mistakes their technicians make. The small companies that work by word-of-mouth and train their technicians don’t have those huge overhead costs.”
Llewelyn is on every installation with his trained crew, and the company’s attention to detail extends beyond technical expertise. “We are conscious of the fact that we’re in your private space,” he says. “We wear uniforms and booties, we put down tarps, and we’re careful with your home.”
In a geography where air-conditioning can be critical, homeowners often feel lost in a sea of confusing estimates and questionable expertise. Carolina Cooling offers something increasingly rare: honest advice, fair pricing and technicians who actually know what they’re doing. For Llewelyn, it’s not complicated. These aren’t just customers. They’re neighbors. *
Robin Howard is a freelance writer in Charleston. See more of her work at robinhowardwrites.com.
Carolina Cooling offers something increasingly rare: honest advice, fair pricing and technicians who actually know what they’re doing.
