Houston contractors: humidity, hurricanes, and a phone that never slows down
In short: Houston gets about 111 days a year at 90°F or hotter and nearly 52 inches of rain, and HVAC search ads here are rated "Very High" competition. Since Oct. 1, 2026, Google can bill a missed business-hours call once the caller waits past 20 seconds. KeptRing answers the overflow so those callers reach your company.
Areas include Houston, Katy, Sugar Land, Pasadena, The Woodlands, Pearland, Spring.
Houston at a glance
| Days at 90°F or above | About 111 a year |
|---|---|
| Cooling vs. heating degree days | About 3,288 vs. 1,266 |
| Annual rainfall | About 51.8 inches; June is wettest at about 6 inches |
| Nights at or below freezing | About 10 a year |
| HVAC search ads | About $28.50 per click, 10% conversion rate, "Very High" competition |
Where the calls come from
Heat and humidity, most of the year. Cooling degree days outnumber heating degree days by more than 2.5 to 1. AC work runs from April well into October, and humid air works condensate drains, coils, and attic units hard.
Storms and outages. When Hurricane Beryl hit on July 8, 2024, CenterPoint Energy reported more than 2.26 million customers without power at the peak, the largest outage in its history (CenterPoint Energy). Restoration brings a wave of calls for electricians (meter bases, panels, generator hookups), HVAC techs (units that won't restart), and plumbers (sump pumps, backups).
Occasional hard freezes. Freezes are rare, but when one hits, pipes in attics and exterior walls burst and plumbing lines flood.
Lead costs and the 20-second rule
We found no published Houston-only Local Services Ads price, and Texas wasn't named among the most or least expensive LSA states in SearchLight's March 2026 data. Nationally, SearchLight measured $51 per HVAC lead, $57 per plumbing lead, and $39 per electrical lead in February 2026, and a 43.9% average book rate (SearchLight).
Under Google's current rules, a call you miss during your business hours is a chargeable lead once the caller stays on the line for more than 20 seconds, and a business-hours voicemail or automated greeting is "treated as a connected call" (Google Local Services Help). The book rate matters here: at about 44 bookings per 100 paid leads, every lead that never reaches a person is a real dent in the math. For example (illustration only), 10 missed business-hours calls in a post-storm week at $57 is $570 in possible charges and, at the national book rate, about 4 jobs that likely went elsewhere.
If a caller reports gas, CO, or sparks
In Houston, CenterPoint Energy is the gas utility for most homes. KeptRing tells callers who smell gas to leave immediately and, once safely away, call 911 and CenterPoint's gas leak line at 888-876-5786.
A carbon monoxide alarm gets the same instruction: everyone out, then call 911 from outside. For sparking, a burning smell, or anyone hurt, callers are told to get to safety and call 911. For downed power lines, callers are told to stay away and call 911; CenterPoint's line for downed lines is 713-207-2222. KeptRing gives no repair steps on these calls and flags them urgent in your summary. KeptRing is not an emergency service and doesn't replace 911, the utility, or your own on-call line.
Built for surge weeks
KeptRing answers every overflow call it gets, so a storm week doesn't mean a full voicemail box. Each lead is emailed with urgency marked: water coming in, no power to the unit, no AC with someone vulnerable at home.
See for yourself
Call (317) 558-7718 and describe a flooded utility room or an AC that won't restart after an outage. Start with a free 14-day pilot, then $249/month per line if you keep it. Our first 10 paying clients lock in $197/month for as long as they stay subscribed. No card to start, month-to-month, cancel anytime. Lead summaries come to you by email after every answered call; texting isn't live yet. Start a Houston pilot.
Sources
- NOAA NCEI, U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020, Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport (station USW00012960). https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/us-climate-normals/#dataset=normals-annualseasonal&timeframe=30&station=USW00012960
- MB Adv Agency, "HVAC PPC Statistics 2026." Google Search ads (pay-per-click), not Local Services Ads; a mix of observed campaign data and modeled estimates. https://www.mbadv.agency/ppc-industry-statistics/hvac-ppc-statistics
- SearchLight Digital, "Google Local Service Ads Cost Per Lead by Trade (2026)," Feb. 2026 data, 888 contractors. https://searchlightdigital.io/google-local-service-ads-cost-per-lead/
- Jon Torrey (SearchLight), "Google Local Service Ads Benchmark: March 2026 (By Trade)," Mar. 26, 2026. State figures are labeled directional by the author. https://thedatadriventrades.substack.com/p/google-local-service-ads-benchmark
- Google Local Services Help, "How leads work." https://support.google.com/localservices/answer/7195435?hl=en
- CenterPoint Energy, initial update on Hurricane Beryl, July 2024. centerpointenergy.com
- CenterPoint Energy, "Gas Leak" and "Contact Us – Houston." https://www.centerpointenergy.com/en-us/safety/reporting/gas-leak
Sources checked Oct. 15, 2026. Lead-cost figures are third-party benchmarks, not KeptRing results; your own Google Ads Leads page is the real number. Worked examples are labeled as illustrations. KeptRing isn't affiliated with Google or any utility named here.
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