In today’s climate, it’s tough to imagine surviving the sweltering summer heat without using your home’s air conditioner. Others, on the other hand, did not have the same level of comfort when it came to home cooling as we do now. So, how did we get high-efficiency air conditioners in our homes? Mason Heating & Air’s HVAC professionals tell the story of the contemporary air conditioner and how we have the comfort we enjoy today in this post.
What Were Some Older Methods of Keeping People Cool?
Although there was no such thing as air conditioning in the past, people used to stay cool by being inventive and employing ancient air-conditioning methods that date back hundreds of years. Hanging cooling, moist cloths on doorways to absorb heat is an excellent example of this. In the summer, Ancient Egyptians kept their homes cool by hanging chilly, damp clothing on doorsills to absorb heat. Ancient Rome is another example. They developed innovative technological advancements that made life more comfortable at the time, such as aqueducts, which were used to pump water through the city and into individual homes. It has also been found that more affluent Roman homes had aqueducts built within their walls that circulated water to help cool the air.
It would be years before we found out how to keep our homes and families cool. However, in 1758, Benjamin Franklin and a Cambridge University professor named John Hadley experimented with evaporative cooling’s effects, demonstrating that evaporating continuous liquids over water’s surface can chill things to below freezing temperature. John Hadley and Benjamin Franklin released the first English-language study on combustion in 1765, which paved the way for experimental research into a variety of related ideas in England that eventually resulted in Michael Faraday. However, in 1839, Faraday utilized ammonia in his research, making him the first to construct an air conditioner using a volatile liquid. This study aided American Physician Dr. John Gorrie in developing his first mechanical cooling device in the 1830s after perfecting it ten years later in 1851.
Who Designed the Air Conditioner?
Finally, in the early 1900s, Willis Carrier developed several fundamental air conditioner types, including some of the first fully developed modern air conditioners. Carrier developed the air conditioner when paper-printing manufacturing procedures like Sacket-Wilhelm’s Lithographic and Publishing Co. required a way to efficiently cool paper. To preserve the paper and ink, Carrier developed a machine that circulated air over cold coils to produce a cooling effect while also dehumidifying the paper.
The first in-home air conditioner installed in a Minneapolis mansion was created by Carrier in 1914, and before that, cooling was only available in hospitals and factories. In 1915, Carrier teamed up with several Buffalo Forge Company engineers to establish the Carrier Air Conditioning Company of America. In the 1950s, air conditioning became so popular that over 74,000 units were put in operation in the United States.
How Did We Get to The Air Conditioning Equipment We Have Today?
Development in high-efficiency cooling systems continues today. The most up-to-date results in air conditioners include utilizing the magnetocaloric effect, which involves heating and cooling magnetic materials at extreme temperatures by removing and restoring the magnetic field. Furthermore, modern cooling equipment designs are currently being put through field testing and will be more environmentally friendly and more efficient than conventional air conditioners.
For now, homeowners can obtain modern, top-of-the-line home cooling equipment and systems from Mason Heating & Air. So, if you’re looking for a solution to enhance your home’s cooling system, we’ve got you covered! Call us today at (513) 496-2477 or schedule an appointment online by clicking here!
