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As the season’s first heat wave pushes North Carolina into the mid-90s and Duke Energy asks customers to cut back, Comfort First Heating & Cooling is sharing free heat-safety guidance and offering $69 seasonal efficiency checks, free second sopinions on repairs, and $500 trade-in credits through the end of June.
This past weekend, high pressure pushed inland North Carolina into the mid-90s. Raleigh, Clayton, Goldsboro, Wilson, and Rocky Mount all reached 95 to 96 degrees. At the same time, Duke Energy asked its Carolinas customers to ease off electricity between 3 and 8 p.m. to head off isolated outages. The season’s first real heat wave is now squeezing the power grid and the people least able to cope with it.
North Carolina is coming off its worst heat season on record: state health officials counted more than 5,700 heat-related emergency department visits in 2025, up from 4,688 the summer before and nearly double the pace of the previous five years. July 2025 was the hottest July ever recorded in Raleigh, and the state opened its 2026 heat season in May with a Heat Safety Week proclamation from the governor.
For some neighbors, this is more than discomfort. A Health Affairs study published in April examined insurance claims from more than 44 million patients and found that each additional day with a heat index of 100 degrees or hotter drives emergency-room visits and costs up across nearly every age group, with the steepest increases landing on people covered by Medicaid and Medicare. Many are older adults or families on fixed incomes. As one North Carolina health report put it this month, they simply cannot afford to cool down.
So Comfort First Heating & Cooling, which serves homeowners across the Triangle, Triad, Charlotte, Jacksonville, and the Outer Banks, is moving to get homes ready before the worst of the summer arrives. Through June 30, the company is offering a $69 Seasonal Efficiency Check, a tune-up aimed at catching struggling systems before they quit on the hottest day of the year, and a free second opinion on repairs for homeowners who have already paid another company’s diagnostic fee. Homeowners replacing an aging system can take $500 off with a trade-in through June 30, and new systems start at $105 per month with approved financing through June 28.
“When it is 96 degrees outside and the grid is asking everyone to pull back at the same time, the people we think about first are the seniors, and the folks running an oxygen machine or keeping medicine cold. Last summer sent a record number of North Carolinians to the emergency room with heat illness, and many of those trips start with a cooling system that quietly fell behind. A $69 check-up now beats an emergency call in July, and if another company has told you that you need an expensive repair, we will take a second look for free. And check on a neighbor. Let’s make sure nobody is sitting alone in a hot house,” said Adam Hagen, General Manager of Comfort First Heating & Cooling.
Free heat-safety tips from Comfort First:
- Pre-cool your home before 3 p.m. so it stays comfortable while you ease back during Duke Energy’s afternoon peak, 3 to 8 p.m.
- Set the thermostat to the highest setting that still feels comfortable. Your system runs longer the hotter it gets outside, even when you do not touch the dial.
- Run the laundry, dishwasher, and oven after 8 p.m.
- Change your air filter. A clogged one makes the system work harder and cool less, and the fix takes five minutes.
- Look in on an older or chronically ill neighbor. A short visit can stop a heat emergency before it starts.
Anyone in the company’s service area can schedule a $69 Seasonal Efficiency Check or claim a free second opinion on a quoted repair by calling (919) 295-3421 or visiting www.yourcomfortfirst.com. The efficiency-check, second-opinion, and trade-in offers run through June 30, 2026; the financing promotion ends June 28, 2026.
Comfort First also notes that hurricane season opened June 1. Forecasters expect a quieter year shaped by El Nino, but the company points to Hurricane Helene in 2024, a $78.7 billion disaster whose worst flooding hit far inland in western North Carolina, as a reminder that one storm can cut power for days.
About Comfort First Heating & Cooling
Comfort First Heating & Cooling is a North Carolina home-services company founded in 2010 and led by co-owners Art Harmon and Wesley McLeod. The company provides heating and air conditioning repair, installation, and maintenance; plumbing services including drain cleaning and water heater replacement across the Triangle, Triad, Charlotte, Jacksonville, and the Outer Banks. Its team has more than 50 years of home-service experience, its technicians are trained, certified, and licensed, and its installations are backed by comprehensive guarantees. The company has a 4.6-star Google rating across more than 4,500 customer reviews (NC License #27085, #21474).
Media Contact:
Adam Hagen
General Manager, Comfort First Heating & Cooling
(919) 295-3421
7001 Lark Lane
Sanford
North Carolina
United States
(919) 295-3421