As what will likely be the hottest August on record in Southern Nevada drags on, the area’s air conditioner service providers are also feeling the heat.
“We’ve been around for 13 years and we have more technicians in the field now than we’ve ever had,” said Kevin Hope of M&K Heating and Cooling Services, a small Las Vegas-based family business that was started by his parents, Michael and Kathy Hope. “We’ve been extremely busy. We’ve had more air conditioning unit replacements this year than ever before.”
While the daily high temperature topped out at 114 earlier this month, it hasn’t cooled off much in the Las Vegas Valley.
According to the National Weather Service office in Las Vegas, daily highs here were at 110 or above for eight straight days from Aug. 7 through Aug. 14, breaking a consecutive days streak for August from 1937.
National Weather Service meteorologist Chelsea Kryston said this month is likely to break the all-time Las Vegas record for hottest August by average daily temperature at 94.4 degrees. Through Tuesday, the average daily temperature for the area this month was 95.8, and there doesn’t appear to be much relief in sight through the end of the month.
“July is typically our busiest month,” said Ken Goodrich, owner and CEO of Goettl Air Conditioning & Plumbing, one of the biggest HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) companies in the valley. “For us, August is usually when business starts to fall off. We’re usually at a slower pace now, but we’re at maximum capacity and have been for about the past six weeks. Once in a while, maybe every 10 years, we have a sustained heat wave like this, which puts any air conditioner to the test.”
Goodrich said the company — which has nearly 250 employees and a fleet of over 140 trucks — increased its technician department by more than 20% since the beginning of the year to help keep up with demand.
Many businesses throughout the valley have fallen on hard times because of the pandemic. That’s not the case in the air conditioning repair industry.
“There’s a shortage,” Goodrich said. “The trades in general have suffered. Our society has been conditioned to go to college to get an allegedly good job. Technicians, those roles can pay between $75,000 and $100,000 per year. Our exceptional technicians can make more than that. An installer, that’s a position similar to technician that has similar pay. That’s a real living.”
Goodrich, a board member emeritus for the College of Southern Nevada Foundation, knows the issue well. Last year, he announced the creation of a $250,000 endowment to help support the school’s air conditioning technology programs. Goodrich and his family have long supported CSN, as the school’s air conditioning technology lab is named after Goodrich’s father, J. Duncan Goodrich.
Part of the hiring process for Goettl is sending potential employees to a six-week HVAC training program it hosts in Texas. They plan to hire 100 veterans, in everything from repair to customer service.
“You have to be the employer of choice to attract people,” Goodrich said. “As they climb the ladder, make $50,000 or $60,000 per year. These are good jobs.”
Crystal Naegle, chairwoman for the Department of Applied Technologies at CSN, said she can’t produce enough HVAC program graduates to meet industry demand.
“There is absolutely a trade skills gap,” Naegle said. “The Baby Boomers are retiring. People in the industry call me and I run out of students. There are spots to fill and there just aren’t enough people to fill them. Working as an HVAC technician, that’s a respectable, satisfying career path. Our classes are not as full as I’d like them to be. There hasn’t been a big uptick with the pandemic, so it’s interesting.”
Jim Low, owner of Superior Heating and Air in Henderson, said his technicians are working up to 14 hour days — or more — during the heat wave.
“People are working seven days per week if they want to,” Low said. “When we’re up near or above 110 degrees, everything is an emergency when people call us. We get to people as quick as we can. We’re doing more residential work right now, partly because people are at home more.”
While Goettl does residential work only, Superior usually has a mix of about 50% residential and 50% commercial property calls.
At the onset of the pandemic, the company’s commercial business dropped significantly, he said, though it has rebounded to a degree. Business is there now, but there were some anxious times this year, Low said.
Superior was able to secure a government paycheck protection loan, which aided the business during uncertain times earlier this year, he said.
“I thought (the pandemic) would be over by summer,” Low said. “The PPP loan helped. We lost a lot of commercial business, though a lot of them opened back up, thank God. We service restaurants and places on the Strip. Some commercial clients have disappeared since the pandemic, which is very sad. It makes me feel so bad for those people. Thank God we’ve been able to navigate this so far.”
If this year has taught small-business owners anything, it’s that the next day in business is never guaranteed. While business is booming now for air conditioning service providers, there could be trouble on the horizon.
Goodrich said he’s noticed some “softening” in the consumer credit market in Las Vegas. For customers wanting to finance a new unit or a repair, Goettl uses a third-party credit provider, which isn’t uncommon in the industry.
“We’ve seen a fair decline in credit approvals,” Goodrich said. “The credit markets are tightening up, which will impact us and many other businesses. It’s tightened up much more here than in my other five markets, but I remain optimistic about Las Vegas. I’ve lived here for 58 years and we’ve been through lots of ups and downs. I’m still bullish on Las Vegas. I’m going to continue to invest my money and my family’s money here.”
Pandemic or no pandemic — and August heat wave or no August heat wave — air conditioning will always be a necessity in Southern Nevada.
Though more HVAC troops are needed, a small army of valley service providers will continue to be there to answer the call of the overheated property owner or manager.
As Naegle puts it, trade jobs provide the “bones for society,” a fact that has been noticeable in 2020.
“Right now is definitely a good time to be in this business,” Hope said. “One month, however, can totally change that. Working in this industry is not easy, physically or mentally, for that matter. If it’s 80 degrees out, things slow down quite a bit.”