A $50,000 electric bill? The cost of cooling L.A.’s biggest houses in a heat wave
In June, when it came time to renew the homeowners’ insurance policies on The Beverly Hills, L.A. hotel, the realtor asked a couple whether they needed to replace the central air conditioner on the third floor, which is in a separate building.
And they did.
The husband and wife replied, “No, we don’t.”
For the homeowners, it’s the cost of cooling the $2-billion Beverly Hills complex that made them ask if they do need to replace it.
In fact, they didn’t. (The Beverly Hills is in part owned by the L.A. hotel chain, one of the biggest property owners in this city.)
But their answers came as a surprise to their realtor, who had asked if they needed to replace the air conditioner. “I was surprised because the first time I saw the house, I was shocked,” David Levy, the realtor of Beverly Hills, said. “From the outside, it looked beautiful, modern, clean. Inside, though, the AC was not running. It was pretty cold.”
Levy said it turns out that while they don’t have any air conditioners, they do have heat.
What happens when you’re at full capacity
In an interview with The Times, Levy said the realtor had asked them to provide an updated estimate based on how the house was performing. “I took that to mean they needed to replace their AC unless they were doing a lot more than they were,” Levy said. “I thought it was an odd request because I would have assumed they did.”
Not long after the realtor had made the inquiry, Levy said, he got an email from the realtor saying he was going to have to replace the AC “immediately.”
Levy contacted the homeowners, who said their ACs were fine and he was right: the ACs were working fine.
But Levy said they had not been making enough noise. “The other thing we did was check the outside air pressure at the building. When the AC was not running, the inside air pressure was so low it sounded like a