Amid extreme heat, expert has reminder about air conditioning maintenance
Anyone standing outside for a few minutes these past few days could feel the sense of being choked by the heat.
It doesn't help the situation, needless to say, if someone's air conditioning goes out at home. So experts have tips to prevent that from happening.
As sure as the sun beams down, the service tricks at are not sitting for long.
"We are probably averaging about 300 inbound calls a day," said Jordan Pramuk of Deljo Heating and Cooling.
The calls all come from people in desperate need of AC repair in this summer heat wave, where the heat index topped more than 100 for the third consecutive day Monday.
"We're trying to make it a short of timeframe as possible, but we're realistically right now at 24 to 48 hours out," Pramuk said.
Pramuk and his team have been putting in overtime trying to get to all the calls. He said during a heat wave, the majority of service calls are for emergencies.
He pointed out the way to keep an AC unit working is through annual maintenance — and not through waiting until it goes out.
"Because right now, units are being taxed," said Pramuk, "and if you have not performed maintenance, it's just going to make potentially more costly for you."
Meanwhile, the City of Chicago said from Friday through Sunday, there were 85 calls to 911 for heat wellbeing checks. The non-emergency 311 service has been busy too — with 46 calls for wellbeing checks, 336 for shelter requests for those who could not manage in their homes, and 792 for open hydrants.
In south suburban Park Forest, some 200 residents of the Autumn Ridge apartment complex are without working AC. CBS News Chicago first reported on the residents last week, and amid the dangerous heat wave, they continued to roast inside their apartments with no relief in sight.
They are using fans, but when the temperature is near 100, such efforts do very little.
"It's like, demoralizing," said resident Derin Curtis. "It's just hot here, and it's like the management doesn't have any humanity."
The Village of Park Forest is threatening fines to the complex owner, insisting the problem get fixed immediately.
Back at Deljo, anyone with working air conditioning when it is this hot is recommended to set it to a reasonable temperature — not the very coolest.
"If we're at 70 degrees as normal comfort for us, if we can take it and go up to 73 degrees, that means the unit will eventually shut down throughout the day instead of running the entire day," said Pramuk.
If your AC is running nonstop and never shutting off while on, that could lead to a bigger problem down the line. Consider this — maintenance on an AC unit runs about $150, but repairs can get up to $700.
