At Greenmill AC, we’ve been supplying the materials, tools and processes to install air conditioning in offices, homes and public spaces over a decade. We have a vast insight into the market and where it is heading in the future. However, something we don’t talk about much is the history of these incredible systems. So, we thought it was time to take a look back and tell you more about these systems we base our lives around.
The Invention of Air Conditioning
We owe our modern-day air conditioner to Willis Haviland Carrier, an American Engineer. He began the process of inventing the very first air conditioner in 1902, aged just 25 and having only finished at university the previous year. Carrier wanted to fix a humidity problem in a Brooklyn printing plant called Sackett & Wilhelms Lithography and Printing Company. The humidity was ruining the prints and causing big problems with the ink, so they needed a way of managing the air quality within the building. Humble beginnings for such a life-changing invention! That’s usually the way though, isn’t it?
By 1933, Carrier had his very own company up and running, called the Carrier Air Conditioning Company of America (we know it’s a bit of a mouthful) and they had just progressed to a new type of air conditioning system that used a belt-driven condensing unit with associated blower along with an evaporator coil and mechanical functioning.
This is pretty much the same basis that we use today in air conditioning systems, which is incredible! Although we have changed things a bit, of course.
What Benefits Did Air Conditioning Bring About?
Apart from helping that Brooklyn printing plant’s humidity problem, air conditioning was revolutionary across the rest of the modern world. As it became more developed, it allowed us to control the environment within an enclosed space, which, when you think about it, is really life changing.
We can now change the temperature and humidity in a room at the flick of a switch. It’s a marvel of science which appears so simple and has made its way into our day to day lives.
We’re more comfortable in all-weather now, but air conditioning is also vital for places where humidity and temperature must be closely controlled, such as hospitals or science labs. Planes use it to regulate the temperature and promote a healthy flow of oxygen and work places use it to allow for better use of buildings all year round as well as greater employee productivity. We don’t think about it very much, but without air conditioning things would be a lot different – and hotter!
