Summer is Coming — Time for Air Conditioning

Summer Is Almost Here…Have You Addressed Your AC?

Here's the nuance most national HVAC content misses: the Bay Area has two completely different summers happening at the same time. A Walnut Creek building hits 100°F in July. A Sunset District building maybe cracks 70°F all summer. Two buildings 15 miles apart, two completely different cooling realities, and two completely different maintenance conversations.

If Your Buildings Are Inland (East Bay, South Bay, North Bay)

You know about “real” AC, real cooling load, and a real maintenance schedule. Pre-summer is the right time for a proper tune-up, and "proper" matters. A full visit includes a refrigerant check and leak inspection, evaporator and condenser coil cleaning, electrical connections and capacitors checks, a blower and airflow assessment, condensate drain clearing (the #1 source of AC-related water damage to ceilings below), filter replacement, and thermostat calibration. A cheap visit skips half of that.

If your system is a heat pump (increasingly common in newer construction and replacements), maintenance is mostly the same, with a few additions: the reversing valve gets tested, the defrost cycle verified, and the auxiliary heat strips checked. Heat pumps run year-round, so the industry standard is two tune-ups annually (pre-summer and pre-winter), not one.

For either system, book now! If you wait until July, you’ll be playing catch up and competing with every manager whose system just failed mid-heatwave.

If Your Buildings Are In SF Proper

Many SF properties don't have central AC, which makes the cooling conversation a different one. Two things worth getting in front of:

• Tenant-installed window units. They're everywhere now. It’s worth creating a written policy if you don't have one: what's allowed, how it gets installed (brackets, not "wedged in and hoped for the best"), and who's responsible if it falls or causes water damage.

• Mixed-system buildings. Commercial tenants often have their own AC systems - make sure you and your team know who is in charge of maintenance before something breaks.

And if you're in the market to replace an aging gas furnace, be sure to price a heat pump. You'll add cooling capability for roughly the marginal cost, with electrification incentives that keep getting better.

It’s Getting Hot In Here

SF has had multiple multi-day heat events in recent summers, with temperatures pushing past 90°F. It may be time to consider installing AC in your smaller properties, or for your vulnerable elderly tenants and we have some great vendors who can help you do just that.

In a city full of un-cooled buildings, vulnerable tenants are at real risk during extended heat. A basic protocol is increasingly expected: a list of nearby cooling centers, check-ins on elderly or medically vulnerable tenants, a cooled common area if you have one, and a way to communicate quickly when temperatures spike. Cheap insurance against a very bad headline.

One Note on Refrigerant

The federal refrigerant phase-out is coming. R-410A is being phased down in favor of R-454B, and older R-22 systems are already prohibitively expensive to service. If your system is more than 10-12 years old, start factoring replacement into your capital planning.

Quick Tips For Managers Hiring This Out

• Get the contract structure right. A one-shot tune-up works for some buildings; an annual service plan (with priority response) works for others. Ask which fits your system.

• Confirm the condensate drain was cleared. Ask explicitly. Cheapest thing on the visit, most expensive thing when skipped.

• Document everything. Visit reports, pressure readings, parts replaced, equipment age. Same logic as the gutter, window, and tree posts.

The Takeaway

Two buildings, two summers, two maintenance conversations, same underlying point: get ahead of it before the temperature spikes.

Consider this your marching orders: book the tune-up, draft the heat-wave protocol, and get the paperwork in your file. And bookmark Property Atlas while you're at it - we'll keep the seasonal reminders, vendor recs, and management tips coming so you don't have to keep them all in your head.

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