“I left the house thinking oh, it’s gonna be nice and cool when I get back,” said Ashland resident Sam Whitridge. “I got home and it was about 87 degrees in the house so I realized something must be wrong.”
Whitridge is selling his house in a few days, and with closing in sight, he needed to get the A/C fixed immediately.
“It felt important that there was functioning air conditioning for the new owner,” Whitridge laughed.
Air conditioning companies like Jahnke Heating and Air Conditioning are hard at work all across the Rogue Valley this week answering calls to repair broken A/C units.
“After we hit 100 degrees, that’s when people typically will realize their air conditioner isn’t working properly,” said technician Jeff Lents, “and they give us a call then.”
Lents has been in the business for three years. The recently retired U.S. Air Force veteran said he goes on about eight calls on hot days like Wednesday. Each call takes anywhere from one hour to however long it takes to get the job done.
“So that’s when we give big arrival windows, the eight to 12 or the 12 to four,” Lents said, “it’s because we’re not sure when we’re going to get there.”
NBC5 News spoke to several local air conditioning companies Wednesday, they can see as many as 30 calls per day and are telling people it could take a couple days to visit their home.
“Well I’m just grateful they could make it out on really short notice,” said Whitridge.
The outdoor work isn’t easy, especially in this heat. But as Whitridge and anyone else using their A/C this week can attest, it sure is appreciated.
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