DENVER — With record-breaking temperatures this weekend, HVAC companies tell Denver7 they are being slammed with calls for service to air-conditioning units. Denver7 has also received several messages from concerned viewers facing long wait times for repairs during the record heat.
Lisa Clifton reached out to Denver7, saying that her home at the Kavod Senior Living center in Cherry Creek had no working A/C Saturday.
“I woke up about 6:00 this morning, and it was hot already,” Clifton said during a Zoom call just after 3:00 pm Saturday. “It’s over 90 degrees in my apartment right now. You’ve got a lot of elderly, very vulnerable people living here. You’ve got three floors of assisted living.”
Management at Kavod confirmed that the air conditioning in one of its three residence buildings went out Saturday, and said that it quickly contacted Climate Engineering to address the issue.
A technician from Climate Engineering identified a problem in the chiller system, a spokesperson for Kavod said. However, the technician said the problem is a two-person job to fix, and therefore will not be resolved until Monday.
In the interim, management at Kavod is helping residents who are able to leave their units to get to parts of the property that still have air conditioning. For residents who cannot leave their units, including Lisa Clifton, management is providing portable A/C units.
Kavod is hardly alone in dealing with air conditioning issues. Marcus Fauth, owner of Great Guys Heating Cooling & Electrical in Littleton, said his company has been receiving nearly nonstop calls for service.
“It’s the hottest day of the year so far, and I’ve been doing nothing but fielding service call requests all day long,” Fauth said. “My technicians are out doing their best trying to solve everybody’s issues with not having air conditioning.”
Fauth said he has been hiring people as quickly as he can for more than a year and has been able to make several new hires to help with the volume. But, he said the industry as a whole has struggled in recent years to bring in enough new employees to keep up with surging demand, particularly when high temperatures hit.
“Today, we’ve received 76 email requests and the phone hasn’t stopped ringing,” Fauth said. “Clearly with the service staff that we have, as well as our competitors—there’s just not enough bodies to be able to service those calls in a timely manner.”
Great Guys Heating Cooling & Electrical, with its expanded team, can usually respond to a call for an A/C repair within three to five days, Fauth said. Still, that’s a long time in the summer heat without air conditioning, which is why Fauth says preventative maintenance is key. He recommends filters be swapped out every two to three months and having a professional inspect your unit annually.
