9th day over 100 degrees; records fall

By JOSHUNDA SANDERS and NELSON ANTOSH

September 6, 2000 Web posted at: 3:30 PM EDT (1930 GMT)

HOUSTON, Texas (The Houston Chronicle) -- In David Boyce's job, the sweat comes with the territory.

For Boyce, one of hundreds of repairmen throughout Houston and Texas tending to malfunctioning air conditioners in days of a record-breaking heat wave, he can sometimes swelter making sure we don't have to.

"If you spend an hour in an attic (during the summer) you need at least two hours to recover," said Boyce, an air-conditioning technician and owner of Aire Serv. "The heat is so intense it takes your breath away."

On Tuesday -- when the temperature reached 108 at Bush Intercontinental Airport -- Boyce spent his morning in the ovenlike attic of a house where the cooling had gone out. Inside a stuffy and insulated attic, the temperature on Boyce's thermometer can reach anywhere from 130 to 225 degrees on days like this. He can only work for 20 to 30 minutes at a time before he has to take a break, and his pants can get heavy with sweat by the time he climbs back into his truck.

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By the afternoon, however, he has turned to troubleshooter, assessing small, incremental damage throughout the Houston area.

Boyce expects to tend to several more units this morning, on a day that is expected to reach a high of 95 to 100 -- possibly the 10th consecutive day to reach the 100-degree mark. For Thursday, the National Weather Service predicts highs in the mid 90s. Rain could come to the area by Friday, when the forecast calls for partly cloudy skies and a slight chance of showers or thunderstorms with highs of 90 to 95. More relief is predicted for Saturday with mostly cloudy skies, a chance of showers or thunderstorms and highs in the lower 90s.

Until then, many Texas cities are sweltering. Records set Tuesday included 112 in Austin, 111 in College Station and San Antonio, and 109 in Corpus Christi. Galveston set a new all-time high of 104, breaking the previous record of 101.

Other records are being broken, as well. Water use in Houston reached an all-time high on Monday, pumping 576.6 million gallons and breaking the previous record of 555.7 million gallons set July 19. Tuesday's electricity use reached an estimated 15,454 megawatts, the highest in Reliant Energy HL&P history. The previous high was 15,311 megawatts last Thursday.

Houston city officials on Saturday instituted voluntary water conservation. In Pearland, officials on Tuesday instituted mandatory watering restriction, while the city of Pasadena called for voluntary conservation.

Pearland residents living at odd-numbered addresses are required to water only on odd-numbered dates of the month and those with even-numbered addresses will be allowed to water only on even-numbered dates.

Outdoor watering is allowed only from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Violations of the mandatory water restrictions are punishable by a fine of up to $500, although first-time violators will receive a warning.

No guidelines were announced for the Pasadena voluntary measure, the second of the summer.

In Brazoria County, the threat of grass fires led county commissioners Tuesday to extend for 60 days a ban on outdoor burning in unincorporated areas.

But as these days are proving, while heat brings some discomfort to many residents, it can mean brisk business for others.

The record heat produced about a tenfold increase in service calls for residential air conditioners compared with last year when the temperature was in the low 90s, said Tom Toth of ARS, a heating, cooling and plumbing company.

The company had taken about 1,400 calls by noon Tuesday, which is more than it can handle.

Ordinarily, the peak for air-conditioning work is in early summer when people know they are facing a long, hot summer, said Tony Maresca of the ACR Group, a Houston-based wholesaler of air-conditioning parts and equipment.

Typically this time of year they fix the unit just enough to get by, knowing cooler weather is near.

"But attitudes change when it is 109 degrees outside," he said.

At Packaged Ice, a company that manufactures and distributes ice, heat is bliss.

"This is our Christmas," said Doug Sawyer. Sales were up about 10 percent as people bought extra bags for their coolers.

But hot weather demand isn't always predictable. Believe it or not, it's even too hot to drink a lot of beer.

"It's been too hot for too long. People don't go out and move around like they normally do," said John Nau, president of Silver Eagle Distributors, who said sales were strong over the holiday, but have trailed off.

Overall, the heat should generate more business for nurseries as people replace landscape plants that have died, said John Teas of Teas Nursery.

But for the moment business is slow as people put off gardening work until the weather cools, Teas said. Some homeowners aren't watering, which leads to death for their plants, while there also are others who are "being too nice to their plants" and drowning them.

But for many residents, like Robin Nini, the greater concern is still the air conditioner.

"I don't want to hear any bad news," Nini told Boyce, who had come to her Friendswood home Tuesday afternoon. He determined that the rust covering the air conditioner was preventing cool air from getting through.

After pointing out a few idiosyncrasies in Nini's air unit, Boyce folds up the blue mat that he has placed on her floor and removes the surgeon-like booties he uses to cover his feet. He collects his fee for laying hands on the unit and is off to Pearland to fix an air conditioning issue there.

It turns out that Colleen Owen and her husband have two air conditioners, one for upstairs and one for downstairs. Only the one downstairs has been on the blink. After Boyce tightens some screws in the outdoor air conditioner and scrapes his hand on the sharp charcoal-colored top, he tells them that nothing is really wrong with their conditioner. But he might have to check just so it doesn't fall apart on them when they need it most. All part of his troubleshooting, he says.

Then he hears that a "cool wave" may be comin' through - with temperatures dropping to 96.

Boyce pushes up his sunglasses and starts to wipe his hands with a cleaning cloth. "Oooh," he says, facetiously. "I got chills already."

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