Air Conditioning units crashing in the heat

By Jarett Henshaw
Published: July 08, 2010

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ROANOKE CO. - American Heating and Air Technician James Legeux says ever since this heat wave rolled in, they've been slammed with calls to fix overworked AC's.

We checked with APCO and a spokesman told us power usage is up on 'Cooling Days'. He said 63 percent more electricity was used in May and 46 percent more in June compared to last year. They expect a bigger increase for the month of July

Atiq Haider’s air conditioner had been working extra hard until it stopped cooling Wednesday.

"It was showing 85, 86 degrees. It was unbearable,” said Haider.

He and his kids slept in the family room last night where it was much cooler.

"You can look down inside of here and see that there's a bunch of ice accumulated around the compressor,” said Technician Legeux.

The blower inside was froze up too.

"The biggest thing I find is that people aren't cleaning their air filters and changing their air filters and that's causing mechanical failures,” said Legeux.

So they turn up the heat to thaw it out.

Legeux says one of the easiest things you can do at home to prevent problems is keeping your furnace clear of obstructions and replace the filter frequently.

Another tip they did in this situation, was used a hose to spray off the outdoor unit to rinse away debris that could be clogging the vents.

With a little bit of Freon added in, Haider's air conditioning is back on and pumping.

We talked to several other air conditioning repair companies who said they're all booked up till early next week.