Field Notes

Fall home checklist for Pee Dee homes

By Dell, certified electrician with 30+ years in the trades · October 2026

Fall in the Pee Dee is short. One week you're running the AC, the next you need heat. A weekend of small jobs now saves you from the calls nobody wants in January.

Heating

• Change the air filter. After a summer of nonstop AC, it's probably clogged. A clean filter helps your system heat evenly and run less.
• Test the heat before you need it. Switch the thermostat to heat on a cool morning and make sure warm air comes out. A burning-dust smell for the first few minutes is normal. A smell that sticks around isn't.
• Heat pump owners: clear leaves and pine straw away from the outdoor unit so it can breathe. If your thermostat shows "emergency" or "aux" heat running all the time, have it checked, because that mode costs a lot more to run.
• Schedule a tune-up before the first cold snap, when HVAC companies get slammed.

Outside the house

• Clean the gutters once the leaves and pine straw come down. Clogged gutters dump water against your foundation and into your crawl space.
• Protect outdoor faucets. Disconnect garden hoses and add an inexpensive foam cover before the first freeze. A burst pipe in the wall is a much bigger bill.
• Check weatherstripping around doors. If you can see daylight or feel a draft, you're heating the outdoors.
• Look at the crawl space. Standing water, sagging insulation, or loose ductwork under the house all get worse over winter.

Electrical

• Test your outdoor GFCI outlets before the holiday lights go up. Press TEST, then RESET. If it won't reset, replace it before you plug anything in.
• Use proper outdoor cords for decorations, and don't chain extension cords together.
• Give space heaters their own outlet. Plug them straight into the wall, never into a power strip, and keep them three feet from anything that can burn.
• Clean the dryer vent. Lint buildup is a fire risk, and a clear vent dries clothes faster.

Safety

• Test smoke detectors and change the batteries.
• Add carbon monoxide detectors if you have gas appliances, a fireplace, or an attached garage.
• Run your generator for a few minutes if you have one. Hurricane season runs through the end of November, and you want to know it starts before you need it.