With much of the country in the grips of a massive heat wave, many people who have air conditioners in their homes are running them overtime.
But these extreme temperatures present a significant challenge to AC systems, which engineers and installers say are really only designed to keep indoor temperatures about 20 degrees cooler than outside.
With temperatures in many parts of the U.S. well in excess of 100 degrees Fahrenheit in recent days, that can pose a big problem, says Srinivas Garimella, a professor of mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech.
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