Sunday high temperatures were above 110° for the 20th straight day. Living without A/C is nearly impossible, making technicians like Jesse Butler essential.
“I run five trucks right now,” Butler said. He is the owner and general manager of Affordable Comfort A/C and Heating. “In the last seven days, we’ve done 63 calls.”
It’s no surprise the business has been busy during a summer of extreme heat. Butler and other technicians spend most of their day outside, in an attic or on a roof.
“I do leave my truck running quite a bit, a little more than I’d like to in the summer time so I can jump right into an A/C truck,” Butler told ABC15. “I try to carry some water and Gatorade to keep cool.”
An essential part of Butler’s toolkit is a magnetic umbrella to provide a little relief from the sun. Butler enjoys helping people, but his seven-day work weeks in the summer do keep him from his family.
“In the wintertime, they don’t feel like that at all, but in the summertime is [when] they’ve got the time, cause they’re out of school, they have stuff going on they have friends going to the lake and I have to sit here like, ‘Well maybe next week we can,” Butler said.
In temperatures above 110, getting a unit up and running for a family in need is reward enough. Butler says tune-ups are essential for units before problems pop up.
“Get the guy on a tune-up that’s going to go up in the attic and check the attic check your ductwork and do what you want,” Butler said. “Even if it’s not on his check sheet, he’ll step out of his way to do that for you. That’s a good guy.”