BATON ROUGE - The summer heat is here, and if your air conditioner isn't in tip-top shape, then you'll definitely feel the brunt of the Louisiana heat.

Jake Sherman with A-1 Air Conditioning says the one way to make sure your AC is properly working for the summer is to make sure its maintenance is done twice a year.

"Have your outdoor unit cleaned, indoor coiled serviced, blower checked, contractors, capacitors..." said Sherman.

He says air conditioners are manufactured to be able to do a 20-degree split, which means the temperature of your home should have a 20-degree difference from outside.

Experts say AC filter changes also play a major role in the upkeep of your AC unit.

"Whenever it's 98 degrees outside with a heat index of 115 and you can't keep your house at 70 degrees, that's not what it's designed to do," said Sherman.

Meanwhile, Joseph "Big Brown" James is known in the community for installing AC units for elderly people who live on a budget.

"A social worker gave me a call today and said that they have a cancer patient lady who's in a house that's burning up... and that's why I'm here today," said James.

The Baton Rouge area has seen high temperatures in May 2018 setting record as the third hottest month.

"So our UPS sister route, southeastern, and southwestern, is helping me out by buying these AC's so that we can put it in our elderly people's windows so they can have a sigh of relief during this hot summer month," said James.