To avoid your air conditioner breaking, people should also keep their filters clean and see if their air conditioner works before it gets too hot out.
(Devan Ridgway/WTIU)
Heating ventilation and air conditioning companies have struggled more with higher temperatures and inflation this summer.
Commercial Services has been working harder to keep up with broken air conditioners. Vice President Charlie Laughlin said the company has been a lot busier this summer, and has been working at max capacity for the last two months. Between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. every day, the company gets anywhere from 10 to 50 phone calls.
Charlie Laughlin, vice president of Commercial Services, said his company has been busier than usual compared to last summer. (Devan Ridgway/WTIU)
“It works out well for our business where it's hot for a few days and then it cools off and then it's hot for a few days and it cools off; it allows us to take that workload get through all the repairs, get through all the replacements of air conditioners,” he said. “This summer has been different that it was pretty hot consistently so we never got break where we could catch up.”
Scott Morse, owner of Sierra Heating and Cooling, said his company has seen fewer customers call to replace their air conditioners because inflation has increased the cost of necessities, such as food and gas. Fewer people can afford to fix their units, which has in turn lightened Morse’s workload.
“Last year we were three weeks behind. Now we're running four to five days behind,” Morse said. “We have slowed down considerably.”
Scott Morse, owner of Sierra Heating and Cooling, said while this summer hasn't been as busy for him, he has gained new customers. (Isabella Vesperini/WTIU)
The cost of equipment has doubled in the last three years, Morse said. And starting next year, companies will be required to buy a new kind of refrigerant, the part of the air conditioning unit that takes the heat out of the air and transfers it to a condenser that makes the air cold. New equipment is being developed to lower its global warming potential. As a result, the cost of equipment will increase even more, up 20 to 30 percent.
“If someone's equipment is 15 years old and you're on the fence about whether to replace it or not, I do suggest you call and get estimates before this happens,” Morse said.
Even though the companies have big stocks of extra parts on site, the development of these new parts has made it harder to get parts this summer.
The cost of equipment has doubled in the last year, and is expected to increase 20 to 30 percent next year. (Devan Ridgway/WTIU)
Commercial Services can usually address all calls within two hours and guarantees same-day service if needed. Most parts come the next day, but this shift in developing equipment can delay service for up to two weeks.
“When the manufacturer starts to shift equipment, you start to see a disruption in the parts supply,” Laughlin said. “When it's super, super hot and everyone's ordering those parts because of breakdowns, we generally see the parts centers trying ship in parts from different regions that aren't necessarily experiencing the demand that we are or have been.”
Most of the work Commercial Services does is part of their preventative maintenance program, when the company checks on customers’ air conditioning and heater units to make sure everything is working properly. Laughlin recommends people sign up to have these yearly checks to avoid any units breaking.
“Air conditioning and heating often gets forgotten about from a maintenance standpoint,” he said. “The majority of the failures that we see on an air conditioner or furnace are preventable with just cleaning, having someone out there that knows what they're doing.”
To avoid your air conditioner breaking, Laughlin said people should also keep their filters clean and see if their air conditioner works before it gets too hot out. Keeping fans running and the shades closed also helps maintain a cooler temperature and keeps the air conditioner from working too hard to lower the temperature.
If your air conditioner unit has bits of grass on it, it does not work as well. Laughlin recommends washing the grass off with a hose set to city washer pressure to remove the grass without breaking the unit.
“If you can maintain your air conditioning on the hottest day of the year, at somewhere between like 72 and 77 degrees, and it's functioning properly, you're doing pretty good,” he said.
If your air conditioning unit has grass on it, it doesn't work as well. (Devan Ridgway/WTIU)
