Key takeaways
- Start the surge plan when the forecast turns, not when the phones light up: three days of warning is enough to change schedules, stock and staffing.
- Triage by heat risk, not by who called first: older adults, infants, people with chronic conditions and homes with no working cooling go first.
- Extend phone coverage before the surge and tell every caller honestly when you can come and what to do until then.
- Protect technicians: water, rest and shade, attic work early in the day, and extra care for new hires who are not used to the heat.
Why heat waves break normal schedules
A heat wave does two things to an HVAC company at once. It drives a spike in no-cool calls, because systems that limped through spring fail when they run all day, and it makes every visit slower and harder, because attics and rooftops become dangerous places to work. Normal scheduling, first come first served, falls apart within a day.
The size of the surge depends on where you work. Air conditioning is used in 88% of US households[1], and use is highest in the South, at 93% of households, and the Midwest, at 92%, and lowest in the West, at 73%[2]. In the Northeast, half of households primarily use individual units such as window units, mini-splits and portables[3], which changes the mix of calls you will see. Plan around your own market's equipment, but plan.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2020[2]
Show the data
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| South | 93% |
| Midwest | 92% |
| West | 73% |
Triage by heat risk
CDC lists the groups at higher risk from heat: older adults aged 65 and over, infants and children, people with chronic conditions, people without air conditioning, outdoor workers, athletes and pregnant people[4]. Your surge triage should use the same list. Ask every no-cool caller who is in the home, then sort.
| Tier | Who | Target | Interim advice while waiting |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No cooling with an older adult, infant, pregnant person or someone with a chronic condition or medical device | Same day, ahead of all routine work | Move to the coolest room or a cooled public space; check on them often |
| 2 | No cooling, healthy adults, upstairs or poorly insulated home | Same day or first slot tomorrow | Close blinds, use fans, cool showers, stay on the lowest floor |
| 3 | Partial cooling, system running but not keeping up | Within 48 hours | Raise the setpoint a little, change the filter, keep blinds closed |
| 4 | Maintenance, quotes, noises, minor issues | Reschedule after the surge | Book a date now so they keep their place |
Heat illness can become a medical emergency. If a caller says someone in the home is confused, has stopped sweating, has a very high body temperature or has fainted, tell them to call 911 now. The air conditioner can wait.
The 72-hour surge plan
Day minus 3: trigger the plan
When the forecast shows several days of extreme heat, the manager declares a surge. Everyone gets the same message: what changes, starting when.
Day minus 2: clear the board
Call routine maintenance customers and offer to move their visit to the week after, so those slots open for no-cool calls. Most agree when asked early and politely.
Day minus 2: stock up
Load every truck with the parts that fail first in heat: run capacitors, contactors, condenser fan motors, and the common controls and fuses for the brands you service. Add a reserve shelf at the shop.
Day minus 1: extend phone coverage
Add CSR hours in the late afternoon and evening, set up overflow answering so no call goes to voicemail, and record the surge greeting.
During: run triage twice a day
At the start of the day and at midday, the dispatcher re-sorts the queue by tier, groups calls by area and texts customers their windows.
After: close the loop
Call back every tier 3 and 4 customer to rebook, and hold a short review of what worked and what did not.
Moving maintenance visits without losing goodwill
Clearing the board two days ahead only works if the calls to maintenance customers are handled well. Most people agree to move a tune-up when they understand why and get a firm new date in the same call.
“Hi, this is Maria from Lone Star Comfort. With the heat coming this week, we're keeping our techs free for families who lose cooling, especially older customers and families with babies. Could we move your tune-up from Thursday to next Tuesday morning? If your system has any trouble before then, call us and you'll be first in line as a member.”
Lone Star Comfort is a fictional name; use your own. Keep a list of customers who decline to move, honor their slot, and note anyone who mentions an older relative or a medical need, so their calls are flagged if the system fails during the surge.
Phones: more coverage, honest answers
During a surge, the phones break before the schedule does. Callers who reach voicemail call your competitors; callers who wait on hold for ten minutes hang up angry. The fixes are simple but have to be set up before the surge.
- Extend CSR hours into the evening, when people get home to hot houses and call.
- Route overflow to an answering service or AI answering so every call is picked up and every caller is triaged with the same questions. An AI employee such as Ava can take the details, ask who is in the home and pass tier 1 calls to the on-call path, while booking routine work for after the surge.
- Switch the greeting to a surge message that sets expectations and names the tier 1 groups.
- Give every caller a time, even a wide one, and a callback promise. “We'll get to you as soon as we can” is not a time.
- Offer a waitlist for cancellations, and call it whenever a slot opens.
Train CSRs on one honest script for callers you cannot reach today: “I'm sorry, we're fully booked today because of the heat. I can put you first on our list for tomorrow at 8 to 10 a.m., and I'll call you if anything opens up today. Until then, keep the blinds closed, use fans, and if anyone in the home starts feeling confused or faint, call 911.”
Keep technicians safe in the heat
The techs carrying the surge are working in some of the hottest spaces in any home. OSHA encourages water, rest and shade as both prevention and treatment for heat-related illness, and notes that workers need time to build tolerance to heat during their first days in hot conditions[5]. HVAC technicians may already be working overtime and irregular schedules in peak seasons[6], which adds fatigue on top of heat.
- Schedule attic and rooftop work for the morning when you can, and diagnose from the outdoor unit first.
- Stock coolers of water and electrolyte drinks on every truck, and make breaks in shade or air conditioning part of the job, not a favor.
- Pair new hires with experienced techs and give them shorter shifts for the first few hot days.
- Teach the warning signs of heat illness and the rule that anyone feeling them stops work.
- Cap the day: a tech who has done twelve hours in attics is a safety risk on the drive home.
Pricing during a surge
Demand spikes tempt some companies to raise prices for the week. Resist it. Customers remember who charged them extra while their family sweated, and they tell their neighbors and write reviews. Keep standard pricing for daytime work, apply your normal after-hours rates only to true after-hours visits, and state any fee before dispatch as you always do.
Instead of surge pricing, use the surge to earn future work: offer a maintenance plan after the repair, and give members the priority you promised them. The week after a heat wave is when replacement quotes and plan sign-ups are easiest, because customers have just seen what a failure costs them.
Example: a three-day heat wave
Example. A Texas HVAC company with nine techs sees a forecast of four days over 105 degrees. On day minus 3 the manager declares a surge. The office moves 31 maintenance visits to the following week, keeping the members who asked to stay. Every truck gets extra capacitors and contactors. Overflow answering is switched on from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m., and the greeting changes.
Over the four days, the company takes roughly three times its normal no-cool volume. Tier 1 calls average same-day service; tier 2 calls mostly next morning. No calls go to voicemail. Two techs feel unwell on day two and are sent home to rest; both return the next day. The review afterward adds two items: start the overflow answering a day earlier, and keep a printed tier list in every truck so techs can re-sort their own afternoons when a job runs long.
After the surge
The week after a heat wave is valuable. Customers whose systems barely survived are open to maintenance plans and replacements, and those rescheduled earlier expect a call. Work through the waitlist, book every deferred visit, and send members a short note thanking them for their patience. Then compare this surge with the last one: calls per day, average wait by tier, missed calls and tech hours. For the matching winter plan, see preparing for the no-heat rush.
Frequently asked questions
Which customers should HVAC companies prioritize in a heat wave?
Homes with no cooling where someone is at higher risk from heat: older adults, infants and children, pregnant people and people with chronic conditions or medical devices. Ask every caller who is in the home.
How do we handle more calls than we can answer during a heat wave?
Extend CSR hours, route overflow to an answering service or AI answering so every call is picked up and triaged, and switch to a surge greeting that sets honest expectations.
How do we keep technicians safe during extreme heat?
Water, rest and shade; attic work early in the day; shorter shifts for new hires during their first hot days; and a clear rule that anyone with heat illness symptoms stops work.
References
U.S. Energy Information Administration (2020). Nearly 90% of U.S. households used air conditioning in 2020 (opens in a new tab) ↑
U.S. Energy Information Administration (2020). Nearly 90% of U.S. households used air conditioning in 2020 (opens in a new tab) ↑
U.S. Energy Information Administration (2020). Nearly 90% of U.S. households used air conditioning in 2020 (opens in a new tab) ↑
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2026). Heat and Health: Risk Factors (opens in a new tab) ↑
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) (2026). Heat Exposure (opens in a new tab) ↑
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers: Occupational Outlook Handbook (opens in a new tab) ↑