The Docket occasionally publishes hypothetical interviews — conversations with composite characters grounded in documented conditions, trade realities, and public data. Dez Coolidge is not a real person, though everything she describes is. Her last name, she'd want you to know, is unfortunately real too.
Between June 13 and September 5, 2025, someone died of heat in Maricopa County every single day. Eighty-five consecutive days, 357 deaths.1 Among the 111 people who died indoors, an air conditioning unit was physically present in 94% of cases. In 72% of those, the unit wasn't working.1
That gap — present but not working — is a mechanical event before it becomes a public health statistic. Someone has to open the panel and find out why.
Desiree "Dez" Coolidge has been running emergency HVAC calls in the Phoenix metro for four years, after pivoting from restaurant management during COVID. She also dispatches for a mid-size residential shop, which means she sees both ends: the call coming in and the unit that won't start. We talked in the parking lot of a QT gas station in Maryvale, between her second and third calls of the afternoon, the van idling for the AC.
You dispatch and you run calls. Which is worse in July?
Dez: Dispatch. Not close. When I'm on a call, I'm solving one problem. When I'm on the board, I'm looking at eleven problems and picking three. The other eight just sit there. And I know what sitting there means when it's 113 out.
What does a typical emergency call look like right now?
Dez: So right now, early July, we're catching the first real wave. May and June soften people up, but July is when the equipment that was barely working quits for good. Most common thing I open a panel and find? Blown capacitor. Little cylinder, looks like a stubby beer can, stores the charge that kicks the compressor on. They hate heat, they hate cycling on and off a thousand times, and Phoenix gives them both. Part's maybe twelve bucks. I carry extras. Whole job, I can have cold air blowing in forty-five minutes, charge two-fifty, everybody's happy.2
That's the good call.
And the bad call?
Dez: Compressor. The compressor is the heart of the system, and when it goes, you're looking at twelve hundred minimum, often closer to two thousand installed, and that's if we have the part.3 On a fifteen-year-old system — which counts as geriatric in Phoenix, because our systems run five months straight at max capacity — I'm usually telling people it makes more sense to replace the whole unit. Now we're talking six, eight, ten thousand dollars.4
And the part that kills me: the capacitor that blew six months ago was the warning. The compressor was hard-starting every cycle because the capacitor couldn't deliver enough charge, and that burns the motor out slowly.5 So the ten-thousand-dollar problem was a two-hundred-fifty-dollar problem back in February. But nobody calls in February. Nobody ever calls in February.
When you give that quote — the big number — what happens?
Dez: Depends on who owns the unit. Homeowner, they go quiet. You can see them doing math behind their eyes. Fixed income, retired, they're trying to figure out whether they have it, whether they can finance it. And I'm standing in their living room where it's already 94 degrees and climbing.
Rental property is different. Rental property is where I start to lose it a little.
Why?
Dez: Because the tenant can't authorize the work. In Arizona, the landlord owns that unit. The tenant is not legally permitted to repair it themselves.6 So I diagnose a dead compressor, I call the property management company, and now I'm on hold. Or I leave a voicemail. Or the property manager has to call the owner, who has to approve the spend, and maybe the owner wants a second opinion, or wants to price-shop, or is just not answering the phone on a Saturday. Meanwhile the tenant is sitting there.
Arizona law gives the landlord five days to fix it when outdoor temps are over a hundred.7 Five days. You know what five days at 113 without AC feels like? I do, because I've walked into day four.
The Maricopa data shows 48% of indoor heat deaths were discovered during welfare checks.1 Does that connect to anything you see?
Dez: Yeah. I don't see the welfare check. I see the step before.
I did a call last summer, older guy, mobile home in south Phoenix. Window unit running but it was 97 degrees in his living room. Window units can only cool about twenty degrees below outdoor temperature.8 That's a design limitation, not a malfunction.
If it's 115 outside, your window unit is giving you 95 on a good day. That's not cooling. That's just less dying.
He told me he'd called his landlord four times. I replaced a capacitor on the central unit — easy fix — but the compressor was also on its way out and I told him that. I don't know what happened after. I don't track that. Nobody tracks that. My service ticket shows "capacitor replaced, compressor showing signs of wear, recommend replacement." Doesn't show what temperature it was inside when I got there, or what the guy looked like, or whether anyone came back.
You're also working in this heat. What's that like physically?
Dez: [laughs] The condenser is outside. Always. Rooftop, side of the house, wherever. So I'm diagnosing in direct sun at 115. If it's an attic issue — evaporator coil, ductwork — attics in Phoenix hit 150, 160 degrees in the afternoon.9 I've had my multimeter get too hot to hold. I've had the plastic housing on a disconnect box soft enough to leave a thumbprint.
OSHA still doesn't have a final heat standard, by the way. Proposed rule, enforcement directive, nothing binding.10 So it's on my company to say "take breaks," which, sure, but when there are eleven calls on the board and eight people waiting —
Do you take breaks?
Dez: Next question.
How do you triage when the board is full?
Dez: Vulnerable occupant goes first. Elderly person living alone, household with an infant, someone telling me they have a medical condition. Then total failure over weak AC. Then — and I hate this part — owner-occupied over rental, because I know I can actually finish the repair on an owner-occupied call. Rental, I might drive forty minutes, diagnose it, and then sit in the driveway waiting for a property manager to call me back while three other calls stack up.
I didn't learn triage in HVAC school. I learned it managing a restaurant on Mother's Day. Fourteen tickets on the rail, two cooks, one fryer down. Same math. Except nobody dies if the chicken's late.
What would you want people to know that they don't?
Dez: Get your system serviced in March. I know how that sounds. But a spring tune-up catches the dying capacitor, the low refrigerant, the filthy condenser coil — all the stuff that becomes an emergency in July. The emergency costs three times as much, and you're competing with every other household whose system also picked the hottest week of the year to quit.4
And if you're renting: know your rights. Document everything in writing. Arizona law requires written notice to start the five-day clock.7 A phone call to your landlord doesn't count. A text might not count. Write it down, date it, keep a copy. The law is actually on your side. The enforcement just hasn't caught up to the temperature yet.
And right now, the temperature is winning.
Footnotes
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Maricopa County Department of Public Health, 2025 Heat-Related Deaths Report, April 2026. https://www.maricopa.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/6510 ↩ ↩2 ↩3
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Capacitor replacement costs average $175–$300 installed, with parts at $8–$45 and typical completion in 30–60 minutes. Sources: HomeAdvisor (https://www.homeadvisor.com/cost/heating-and-cooling/replace-ac-capacitor/); Bryant (https://www.bryant.com/en/us/products/air-conditioners/ac-capacitor-replacement/) ↩
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Compressor replacement averages $1,200–$2,300 installed nationally. Sources: HomeAdvisor (https://www.homeadvisor.com/cost/heating-and-cooling/home-ac-compressor-replacement-repair/); This Old House (https://www.thisoldhouse.com/heating-cooling/ac-compressor-cost) ↩
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Full system replacement estimates: $5,540–$10,980 installed. Phoenix AC lifespan averages 12–15 years vs. national 15–20. Sources: Today's Homeowner (https://todayshomeowner.com/hvac/cost/ac-compressor-cost/); Comfort Experts AZ (https://azcomfortexperts.com/service-area/phoenix/) ↩ ↩2
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Bryant, "AC Capacitor Replacement Guide." https://www.bryant.com/en/us/products/air-conditioners/ac-capacitor-replacement/ ↩
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A.R.S. § 33-1364(H); Arizona Eviction Help (https://azevictionhelp.org/eviction-process/miscellaneous/air-conditioning) ↩
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Arizona landlord repair obligations and tenant notice requirements. Sources: Century Homes America (https://centuryhomesamerica.com/what-rights-arizona-renters-have-if-landlords-delay-ac-repairs/); Arizona Court Help (https://azcourthelp.org/browse-by-topic/eviction/tenant-information/tenant-eviction-resources/ac-issues) ↩ ↩2
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Central and window AC systems are designed to cool approximately 20°F below outdoor temperature, not to a fixed setpoint. Sources: Energo (https://energo.com/blog/why-your-ac-cant-keep-up-in-a-heat-wave-and-when-its-actually-broken/); A Quality HVAC (https://aqualityhvac.org/blog/why-your-air-conditioner-cannot-keep-the-house-cool-when-temperatures-hit-110-degrees/) ↩
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A Quality HVAC and Plumbing Services LLC (https://aqualityhvac.org/blog/why-your-air-conditioner-cannot-keep-the-house-cool-when-temperatures-hit-110-degrees/) ↩
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OSHA's Heat Injury and Illness Prevention rule remains proposed as of mid-2026. OSHA issued a National Emphasis Program enforcement directive on April 10, 2026. ↩