RICHMOND, Va. — Extreme heat, amplified by severe weather over the weekend left many in the Richmond-metro area without air conditioning.
“The fans are blowing,” said, Mary Facka, Resident at Envoy of Westover Hills Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.
Facka is one of 173 patients who were sweating it out inside Richmond’s Envoy of Westover Hills.
“Oh Lord, I took my shower this morning. I got a napkin down here catching sweat and I even put speed Arm and Hmmer everywhere,” Facka said.
The Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center took a power hit in Saturday`s storms, knocking out the air conditioning in the building.
“What we do in times like this, the staff goes around we pass out extra water extra ice. We keep everyone as comfortable as we can we’re on emergency power so we were able to plug in fans things of that nature,” Westover Hill’s Vice President, Robert Fabian.
By Monday afternoon, things were much cooler inside the 50,000-square foot facility and the AC was fixed.
But as the mercury continued to climb outside, so did the problems for homeowners like Jeff Meyer, whose AC crashed from the extreme heat.
“It got really hot in here. I woke up sweating, started worrying about my son. I have a 2-year-old son. Seemed like he was sleeping fine, but when he woke up this morning he was drenched in sweat,” said Chesterfield resident Jeff Meyer.
He sweated through his workday inside his 85-degree home but was thrilled with the quick response from Capital Heating and Cooling.
“That’s the first thing that came to mind with my son, I was like oh no it’s going to be 100 tomorrow we got to get this done quickly,” said Meyer.
“Keep in mind when it’s 100 degrees outside these systems are not refrigeration, not refrigerators, they’re meant to keep a 20 degree temperature difference from outside temperatures,” said, Capital Heating and Cooling technician, Phil Mallory. “If it’s 100 degrees outside, the best you are going to see in your house is 80 degrees,” added Mallory. “It does put more stress on the system, it can cause the system to fail,” stated, Mallory.
Experts say the best advice they can give homeowners is to keep your air filters clean by changing them frequently and get regular maintenance done on your units.They also ask for patience as they have been inundated with calls in this extreme heat.
“Right now the demand is intense,” said, Mallory.
