Air conditioning companies see high demand amid extreme heat

AUSTIN, Texas - With record-breaking heat, air conditioning repair companies are seeing record demand as people try their best to keep their homes cool.

"It's very hot and humid," 12-year-old Phoebe McPherson said. Her family is waiting for a new air conditioning unit after theirs broke.

Temperatures inside the house range from 84 to 92 degrees.

"I want the AC to get fixed quickly," she said.

Air conditioning companies are seeing demand rapidly increase.

"It's been close to 150 percent from last year," Keating Kuhn, service manager at Gold Eagle Services, said.

"I'm going to say a good 20 percent probably up this year compared to last year at this time," Greg Yamin, owner of A+ Air Conditioning and Home Solutions, said.

Yamin says this comes from the record heat, plus people spending more time at home during the pandemic.

"Basically, this time of year we're usually doing check-ups and tune-ups and getting people ready for the summer, but this month we've had quite a few people that have had broken units, so Mother Nature is keeping people a little warm," he said.

Because of the heat outside, Austin-Travis County EMS responded to 13 heat-related calls Friday. That's up from three Wednesday and five Thursday.

They say you should stay hydrated and take breaks from the outdoor temperatures. 

"We're not used to 105-degree temperatures throughout the entire summer, but especially towards the beginning of June, these temperatures seem to fluctuate very quickly. Last year we only had one or two days over 100 degrees, and now we've had over 10 already this summer. It is a much higher demand than last year," Kuhn said.

Experts say if your AC is broken, you can try to stay cool by keeping your windows shut, using fans, staying hydrated, and taking a cold shower.

"We usually turn on a lot of fans, because we have a lot of fans in the house, or we bring in the fans we have in our shed and just plug them in and put them around the house," McPherson said.

Experts say common AC problems include low refrigerant levels, blower motors being out, and dirty filters.

"The biggest thing we can recommend is having your unit cleaned and serviced at the beginning of the spring," Yamin said.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

• Excessive Heat Warning issued for Central Texas through Sunday
• City of Austin to operate cooling centers this weekend
• What can I do to prevent heat exhaustion and heat stroke?

With demand for AC repairs, you may have to wait for regular maintenance, unless you have a maintenance agreement with your company.

"Right now, our routine maintenance is about a week and a half out. We are saving our technicians for emergency appointments just because the demand is there for those emergencies," Kuhn said.

If your AC is broken, the companies we spoke to try to get everyone on the schedule the same day, but the wait for parts may be longer.

"With part availability and supply chain issues there can certainly be a wait of two to three days," Kuhn said.

The companies that spoke to us to try to prioritize based on the severity of the case.

"With extreme temperatures comes people that just need air conditioning as soon as possible, with pets and children and elderly folks, we need to get there as soon as we can," Kuhn said. "People that have maybe a water leak, or their air conditioning is working, but not as good as they want it to, making weird sounds, things like that, things we can push off into the future, that aren't extreme circumstances, we do try to prioritize the 'no cools' beforehand."