In the height of summer, there’s nothing more comforting than escaping into the cool air of your home. Our HVAC systems are a modern luxury that we sometimes take for granted—a background noise to our otherwise busy lives. But HVAC wasn’t always around to make our lives easier and is a rather recent invention spurred by the Industrial Revolution. At Kasper Mechanical, we’re grateful for the history of technicians who paved the way for our company to transform the homes in our Northern Virginia community. Let’s give credit to all those inventors who gave us a service to be proud of.
Ancient HVAC Methods
Humans have always had a natural form of heating—fire. For much of history, we’ve always had camp fires, fireplaces, or furnaces, but to manufacture cooling, humans had to get a little creative. From as early as 206 B.C., the Chinese used indigenous methods to circulate cool air into their homes, working a water wheel and windmill fan in a system that could produce an effect similar to the modern HVAC system. Other ancient methods included manufacturing a self-raining pavilion in homes, wherein the windmill and water wheel would pump water to the roof of a home so that it could drip along the sides of the house, creating a cooling effect. Not unlike modern methods, humans devised naturally powered strategies to bring cool air into their homes.
Modern HVAC Inventions
Despite these ancient methods, Dr. John Gorrie is famously accredited for inventing the first semi-modern cooling system. As a Florida native in the height of a yellow fever epidemic (1840s), Gorrie believed that the ridiculous heat of the South was the cause of many diseases. At the time, the most common form of cooling was to transport ice from frozen bodies of water, but being located in the deep South, this was nearly impossible. To remedy this, he invented a cooling system that involved power from steam, horses, or wind-blow sails. While his invention never became patented, it laid the groundwork for those inventors who came after him.
About sixty years later (1902), a young New Yorker named Willis Carrier finally got the job done. He was given the task when a publishing company sought to solve the humidity problem wrinkling the pages of their magazines. Carrier’s “Apparatus for Treating Air” used cooling coils to humidify the air by heating water or dehumidifying air by cooling water. This was the first AC unit, and it was tested in textile mills first. It wasn’t until 1914 that this AC unit was used in residential homes. Compared to a modern window or home unit, this first AC was roughly seven feet high, six feet wide, and twenty feet long—big enough to require its own room.
It took quite a while for the invention to become cheaper and more compact, subsequently making them more commonplace among the American home. It wasn’t until the 1960s that most new homes were getting built with central AC or older homes started converting to these methods. Even today, older homes may still have leftover parts of outdated heating and cooling systems, though as of 2020, it was estimated that 88% of Americans have converted to central AC.
Kasper Mechanical Can Keep You Up-to-Date
In an ever-evolving industry, you want to ensure that you are keeping your HVAC system up-to-date with the latest technology. If your home is still operating on radiator heating or window unit AC, call Kasper Mechanical at 540-300-7917 to schedule an update on your HVAC system.