Record heat wave, pandemic prompts high demand for air conditioners in Edmonton

A record-breaking heat wave that rolled through Alberta and British Columbia last summer caused “mayhem” for Edmonton’s air conditioning contractors – and the effect is still being felt ‘til this day.

Contractors like Weiss-Johnson in Edmonton say their phones have not stopped ringing since last summer and there’s no end in sight.

“It’s not going to change,” said company president Dennis Johnson. “We are still waiting on equipment from last year that hasn’t shown up.”

BACKGROUND: Expert explains ‘heat dome’ hovering above B.C., Alberta

The 2021 heat wave that scorched western North America was among the most extreme ever recorded globally, new research shows. The study in the journal Science Advances found just five other heat waves since the 1960s were more intense.

The study projects that by around 2080, heat waves like the one last summer could have a one-in-six chance of happening every year in western North America as the effects of climate change worse.

To understand the heat wave in a global context, researchers examined 230 regions around the world, including B.C. and Alberta. They compared the hottest temperatures recorded on a single day all year with the average over the hottest three months annually over the previous decade.

The temperature recorded in Alberta on June 30, 2021, is listed as the sixth most extreme heat since the 1960s, with a maximum temperature of 36 C.

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• Climate change made B.C., Alberta heat wave 150 times more likely, study concludes
• Deaths during B.C. heatwave surpass 800

Johnson believes that heat weave is partly responsible for more Edmontonians wanting to cool their homes. The other: more people are working from home because of the pandemic and need AC in the summer.

On top of an increased demand, the supply chain is still disrupted with air conditioners and furnaces. Instead of ordering when a new job comes in, Weiss-Johnson has taken to ordering as many units as they can in advance to store in their warehouse.

Johnson is also noticing a steep increase in people looking for air conditioning in the dead of winter.

“We were telling customers we can get it done now, but I need you to shovel a pathway through the snow to where your air conditioner is going to be installed.”

—With files from The Canadian Press.