The heat doesn’t affect Manteca potter Randy Pearsall when he starts his day.

As he throws down a slab of clay on his wheel and prepares to shape any one of a number of items, the combination of cool water and the cool morning make the garage studio where he plies his craft more than tolerable.

But on the afternoons that he’s baking glaze onto those very same pieces with a kiln that reaches upwards of 2,300 degrees, Pearsall spends as little time as possible outside – the heat from the self-built kiln radiates and when coupled with the 100-plus degree weather can be exhausting.

“I try to keep enough pottery around so that I can wait until the next week when the weather is going to be a little bit cooler,” Pearsall said – noting that he’s employing that tactic this week in place of the twice-a-week kiln sessions that are normally standard fare. “It gets hot in the studio so when people come to visit while I’m firing on days like that they don’t stick around long.

“When I’ve got a show or something like that and I don’t have a choice I just drink lots of water. It definitely wears you down.”

With the first prolonged heat wave of the year rolling through the San Joaquin Valley – bringing a string of days with temperatures above 100 degrees including a high of 102 in Manteca on Tuesday– residents are searching for ways to keep cool.

While Pearsall’s livelihood is dependent on being able to tolerate the temperatures, residents like Mary Wilcox plan on spending as much time inside with her air conditioner providing the solace that she seeks.

“It’s worth the extra money at the end of the month,” she said. “I can’t stand being hot, so it’s kind of ironic that I live here in the Central Valley with the summers that we get.

“But air conditioning provides everything that I need to get through the day.”

Making sure that she can flip a switch and instantly cool off her house, however, isn’t necessarily a given.

According to Ron Parungao of Star Refrigeration, a variety of factors can affect the overall performance of an air conditioning unit and determine its life – ranging from neglect to when somebody finally decides to turn it on.

Even though it’s not something that most people would think of, Parungao says that waiting until the hottest part of the day to run the air conditioner can actually do more harm than good since it puts the added strain of firing up when temperatures are at their peak.

And never inspecting or checking the unit, he said, can provide its own problems.

“When you have a condenser that is coated with dirt, you’re going to lose upwards of 20 or 30 percent right off the bat,” he said. “And most people might not realize it, but newer homes, which are built to sit at around 80 degrees, generally use more load than typical homes because of window ratings and attic insulation and things like that.

“And we’re definitely working overtime right now with the heat.”