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STORY: Raba Peci never wanted air conditioning. The cold air made people sick, she thought.

Then, a string of heatwaves in her town of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo made her change her mind.

"This summer is very hot and unbearable and this is the reason why we decided to install it now. It is because of the high heat."

Many in the Balkans region of central Europe have long mistrusted artificial cooling methods.

In some areas, people even avoid chilled drinks and ice cream for fear of catching a cold.

Data shows that blistering summer temperatures like the ones seen this week are altering those attitudes.

And that is good news for air conditioning suppliers.

But it is raising concerns about the impact of growing consumption on a fragile power grid.

On July 16 Kosovo energy supplier Kesco issued a warning to customers asking them to limit power consumption.

Because, it was having to import over $1.1 million worth of power per day from its neighbors.

A month earlier, a spike in consumption likely triggered a major power outage across Montenegro, Bosnia, Albania and most of Croatia's coast.

Margarita Rashiti is a spokesperson for Kesco.

"The climate is an issue and a challenge for us. We have seen an increase in power consumption during winter when people use it for heating but this year we also had the contrary, with power now being used to cool the houses. We understand consumers because the temperatures were very high."

Kosovo has seen a 400% increase in air conditioning unit imports in the past five years, customs data shows.

Long term, experts say countries will need to strengthen their grids and increase domestic renewables output to meet future demands.