Albertans sought respite during record-hot July. Spike in electricity use suggests they found AC
CBC
Sweating through day after day of a heat wave that wouldn't break, many Albertans bit the bullet and sought out air conditioning.
"The calls were fast and furious," said Teseo Berardi, service manager at Edmonton heating, cooling and plumbing company Weiss-Johnson.
"Everyone was interested in air conditioning. They were even more interested in having air conditioning installed about 45 minutes ago."
According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, it was the hottest July on record in the Alberta communities of Edmonton, Calgary, High Level and Grande Prairie.
The first heat warning of July came early in the month when the entire province saw temperatures soar for a few days. But after a brief reprieve, the heat returned in mid-July, with Edmonton experiencing highs of 30 C or hotter for seven consecutive days.
In Medicine Hat, temperatures were above 30 C for 10 straight days; in Grande Prairie, the heat lasted eight days, beating the previous seven-day record from 1936.
In Edmonton, nightly lows during the heat wave were around 20 C, meaning homes had little chance to cool overnight.
Any hope of opening windows to get relief was complicated by wildfire smoke that blew in for several days from blazes in Alberta and B.C.
An influx of calls after a few hot summer days is nothing new for HVAC companies. Business owners say they're also fielding more inquiries about electric-powered heat pumps, which can work for both heating and cooling, even if homeowners would rather also keep their natural gas furnace as a winter backup.
But historically, home air conditioning has been uncommon in Alberta, with many deeming it an unnecessary expense given our relatively short summers and the likelihood of hot days being balanced by cooler evenings.
At JDK Heating & Cooling in Sherwood Park, Alta., service manager Keith Norton said call volumes tripled. Some people were so desperate for air conditioning that they offered to pay thousands of dollars above the quoted price to get to the front of the installation line — something Norton said the company didn't do.
"We went into a house, a brand new home. It didn't have AC and the upstairs of the house was 37 C," he said.
"Everyone's got a story, whether it be a new baby, a cat and dog in the house, health problems.... I think people are really feeling that this is going to be a continuing thing. This isn't a one-off."
In 2021, the most recent year with Statistics Canada data on household air conditioner use, 37 per cent of Alberta households had some type of air conditioning, with the vast majority being central air systems. That's up from 26 per cent in 2013.
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