“All hands on deck.”

That might sound like a nautical story, but this one is about the recent hot, sweltering weather and how it affects everyone.

Karen Smith, who owns Peninsula Heating & Air in Gloucester with her husband Stephen, used the phrase to describe how their company has been pushed to the limit in trying to meet local residents’ cooling system needs in a timely fashion. The extremely hot temperatures have overtaxed many air conditioning systems, as they are being asked to constantly cool air for prolonged periods they might not have been engineered for.

A common problem has been lack of coolant in a system, Karen Smith said. Some clients’ units have required new capacitors.

Peninsula Heating & Air gives special consideration to families with newborns and to the elderly and disabled who might be affected most by the heat, Karen Smith said. The company’s technicians service mostly full-home cooling systems, but also fix window units, ...