A buddy of mine was in from California two months ago.  He always makes an attempt to come in around the Spring and Fall because he enjoys the change of season.  However, this year he was greeted to abnormally cold temperatures despite it being late April.  The first thing he said when I picked him up was, “Isn’t it supposed to be Spring?”  I then replied, “We haven’t really had a Spring this year.”

If there is one thing St. Louisians love to create small talk about, it is our weather.  The climate here is ever changing.  You never really know what to expect.  Even as inconsistent as the weather can be, the Spring of 2018 was different.  That is because we didn’t have one.

April was really cold.  I mean, really really cold.  According to weather.gov, the average high temperature in April in years past has been 67.4 degrees.   In 2018, the average high in April was 60.7.  That is drastic difference in temperatures.  The temperature only got above 80 degrees two days in the month.  One being the last day of April.  I’m not a weather man, so I’m not going to try and understand why this happened.  I’m sure a meteorologist has some fancy term for it.  But if you look at the highs and lows for each day of the month, you’ll notice it was consistently cold throughout all 30 days.  To make things worse, the high temperatures in May came out of the gate hot!  After only seeing two days in April hit above 80 degrees, May started with highs at 87 back to back days.  In fact, the average high in May throughout the St Louis area was 85.1 degrees.  That is 8.8 degrees hotter than the average recorded high in years past.

Usually April is your ideal maintenance month for the HVAC industry.  This is the time of the year where St Louis HVAC companies start gearing up for the cooling season, and wrap up what is left in the heating season.  It is also the time of the year for preventative maintenance.  April is usually the ideal month for maintenance because the temperature is hot enough to test your air conditioning system, but it is not too hot outside to where you see a huge demand in service calls.  Many heating and cooling companies in St Louis offer AC check ups as a way to help prevent or identify anything wrong with the equipment before the weather creeps into the 90’s.

Unfortunately, with the weather being so cold in April, there were only a couple of small windows where HVAC technicians could properly conduct an AC check up.  That was then immediately followed by a hot May which flooded HVAC offices with calls of customers experiencing malfunctioning equipment.  It was basically the perfect storm depending on how you viewed.  Not only was there so much built up demand from a non-existent Spring, but that was combined with pretty much the entire St Louis area not being able to have their air conditioner maintained properly.

Absolutely not!  You are probably thinking, “Of course an HVAC company is telling me it isn’t too late for an AC check up.”  You might have a point, but the reality is that even as hot as May was compared to years past, it will only continue to get hotter through June and July.  Not to sound bleak, but the worst is yet to come.  If you have not received an AC check up yet, it is kind of like the equivalent of being 2,000 miles past due on an oil change for your car.  Will your engine blow up?  Probably not.  But do you want to drive across the country without having that oil changed.  Again, probably not.

Despite being in full swing for the Summer season, our team has strategically allocated our technicians in a way that we will always be able to perform an AC check up when someone is in need.  Our staff looks at preventative maintenance as an obligation to our customers to help make sure their system is operating at maximum efficiency heading into the months they rely on it the most.  Whether you are worried that your system is not running at maximum performance or would like us to perform a simple ac recharge using r22 or r410a refrigerant, give us a call at (314) 351-5580 or contact us using the web form submission below.

Ameren Missouri has brought back a popular maintenance program called the “AC Tune Up Plus.”  Not only will a technician run a full diagnostic on your AC system, but with the Tune Up Plus, you will also receive a full efficiency analysis on your existing equipment.  You must have had your system installed for at least one year.  The limited time offer is only available one time throughout the life of a system.  The cost for the service is $75.  To learn more about the Tune Up Plus Program, call our office today at (314) 351-5580 or fill out the form below.