Pierson, Seville and Barberville on the night the ferneries run their frost protection
When the forecast says 28, the fern growers start their irrigation at midnight and the heat pumps in three towns switch to emergency heat. We hear about both by morning.
A January night in the twenties
The forecast calls for 27 by dawn. In Pierson, which has called itself the Fern Capital of the World for a century of growing floral greenery under shade cloth, the growers are up at midnight turning on the overhead irrigation that coats the ferns in protective ice. In Seville, up US 17 toward Lake George, and in Barberville at the SR 40 crossroads, the heat pumps in the ranch houses and manufactured homes are doing something most of their owners see only a few nights a year: running their electric strips flat out, with the outdoor coil frosted white and the defrost cycle kicking in every half hour.
By seven in the morning our phone has two kinds of calls from these three towns. The system that quit, and the system that is running but blowing air that feels cool. Both are winter calls, and in a county that logs 522 cooling-degree days in July against 226 heating-degree days in all of January, they come in a short, intense season.
Three towns, one kind of country
Pierson is a town of about 1,500 on US 17, Seville a community of a few hundred farther north, and Barberville an unincorporated crossroads where SR 40 meets US 17, best known for the Pioneer Settlement and the produce stand with the yard art. Between them is fern country: shade houses, packing sheds, pasture, and houses that are mostly block and frame ranches from the 1960s through the 1990s, manufactured homes on acreage, and a handful of older farmhouses. Everything is on a private well. Almost nothing is on gas. The power comes down long rural FPL feeders that blink in every thunderstorm.
The calls, cold season and hot
Cold night
- Heat pump running, air feels cool: usually normal operation at 30 degrees, sometimes a failed strip or a stuck reversing valve.
- Outdoor unit a solid block of ice: defrost control or sensor failure.
- No heat at all: tripped breaker on the strip circuit, failed sequencer, or a thermostat fault.
- Enormous bill in February: strips running when they shouldn’t, often from a miswired or misconfigured thermostat.
Hot season
- No cool after a storm: surge-damaged control board or capacitor on a long rural line.
- House clammy on a well: condensate pump scaled and failed, water on the floor.
- Manufactured home won’t cool: belly duct torn or disconnected under the floor.
- Package unit on a fernery packing house down: contactor, fan motor, refrigerant leak.
How we handle a call from here
Pierson, Seville and Barberville are the farthest reaches of the territory we serve under the Ormond Beach name, and we say so plainly. From the Palm Coast headquarters the drive is SR 100 west to Bunnell, SR 11 south through the flatwoods to SR 40 at Barberville, then US 17 north: about an hour to Barberville and Pierson, a little more to Seville. The alternative, I-95 to SR 40 and west past the Volusia Speedway, is similar. Someone at Cook’s picks up at every hour, the long drive adds no mileage or after-hours line to the bill, and a truck sent to fern country is stocked for fern country: heat strips and sequencers in winter, surge protectors, capacitors and condensate pumps year round, and the hardware for both split systems and package units.
On a freeze night we triage for the house with an older resident and no heat first, then for systems that are iced solid, then for the running-but-cool calls, which are usually fine and get a morning visit.
The follow-up is a fall visit that tests the strips and the defrost cycle before the first cold snap, and a spring visit that cleans the coil and checks the condensate pump before the heat. Owners out here tend to be on a maintenance agreement for exactly that reason; the current tiers are Jerry’s to confirm. [[CONFIRM WITH JERRY]]
Asked in fern country
My thermostat says 'aux heat' and the bill was huge. Is something broken?
Not necessarily. On a night in the twenties a heat pump leans on its electric strips, and ‘aux’ is what that looks like. If the strips are running on a 50-degree morning, or the outdoor unit never runs at all in heating, something is wrong and the FPL bill will keep saying so until it’s fixed.
What's the drive time to Seville from your shop?
Seville is the far corner of our Ormond Beach territory, around an hour and a quarter from the Palm Coast shop by SR 100, SR 11 and US 17. Pierson and Barberville are a little closer. We give you the real window when you call, and the rate is the same as it is in town.
Our power blinks every time a storm comes through. Is that hurting the system?
Yes, over time. Long rural feeders and high lightning density mean brownouts and surges, and both are hard on compressors and control boards. A whole-system surge protector and a hard-start kit on an older compressor are the two cheapest protections we install out here.
Do you work on the climate systems in a fernery packing house?
We service commercial equipment, including the coolers and package units in agricultural buildings, from the same dispatch as residential work. Tell us what’s installed when you call so the right technician and parts come out.
Fern country, from the Barberville crossroads north
Call on the cold night or the hot afternoon; the answer and the rate are the same.