Air conditioning technicians on overdrive, provide energy usage tips to save on costs

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – A pile of broken air conditioners is growing in the work yard of Sun Country Heating & Cooling. It began forming just last week.

Service Technician Martin Rodriguez said each one belonged to a customer in distress because their unit was unable to “keep up” in the scorching heat. He’s now receiving up to 20 of those emergency calls daily, a stark rise from when he wasn’t receiving any just a month ago.

“Most times, (I work from) 8:00 to 8:00, or 8:00 to whenever I’m done,” Rodriguez said, standing next to the pile while discussing his current workload. “Units are just not designed to run at these extreme temperatures.”

As those in the Las Vegas valley yearn to cool off at home without heating up at the bank, he said they can take simple steps now to save money on energy usage before temperatures climb towards a potential peak of 118 degrees on Monday.

The simplest and most efficient method, he said, is to replace the air filter inside the unit. Replacements, free of the debris and dust they’re designed to collect that could prevent cool airflow, are found inside most home improvement retailers.

90 days is the standard timeline for replacement after installation, though Rodriguez recommends doing so more frequently in households with children and shedding animals. On the outside unit, where heat from the inside is expelled, he adds that should be washed with a hose and water twice a year.

“If you have leaves or trash around the unit, the fan actually cannot disperse any heat outside of the unit, which causes the compressor to overheat,” Rodriguez said.

Back inside, keeping blinds closed and using black-out curtains can keep the heat out and the thermostat lower. Rodriguez recommends a setting of 78 to 80 degrees as the unit may physically be unable to go any lower amidst high heat, which is not necessarily a sign that it’s not working.

“No house is designed to cool down to a certain temperature, especially with these extreme heats,” Rodriguez said. “It all depends on if your windows are sealed correctly, or your doors are sealed correctly, you have good insulation inside your house. It all depends on lots of variations.”

When not at home, he recommends setting it three degrees hotter so that the unit runs less frequently during the day and can properly adjust back down when people are around. NV Energy, more aggressively, recommends setting the thermostat to 78 to 80 degrees when at home and 5 to 10 degrees warmer than when not at home and when sleeping.

Art Hernandez, Sun Country Heating & Cooling’s general manager, said the average replacement for a broken unit has risen from $10,000 to $15,000. Most of his customers, on a budget or not, are spacing out the payments.

“The equipment’s just getting more expensive every year,” Hernandez said inside the company’s warehouse Tuesday afternoon. “We can do up to 72 months, depending on what equipment qualifies and all that stuff, but we have quite a bit of plans to try and help people out.”

Both Rodriguez and Hernandez add that an annual inspection by a professional can prevent problems before they exacerbate in extreme heat.

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