Staying nice and cool in the summer is one of life’s greatest pleasures. You’ve got to appreciate that breath of fresh air every time you crank the air conditioner up on a 90+ degree day. Have you ever wondered if there might be more to this AC than you at first thought? If so, here are a few fun facts about your air conditioner that you might not even know about.
- Staying Cool
People wanted to be cool long before air conditioners came along, but it wasn’t very easy to do. Before the 1900’s, with the invention of electric fans, people who wanted to cool off had to use hand fans. You’ve probably seen these in use today at sporting events where summertime heat is a problem
- First Air Conditioner
In 1931, H.H. Schultz and J.Q. Sherman invented the first “single room” air conditioner. Much like later air conditioning units, this one sat on the edge of a window. Back then you could only buy this unit for about $416, and you can imagine just how expensive that would have been in 1931 dollars.
- Refrigerated Air
Before air conditioners were affordable in homes, people got their first dose of this miraculous “refrigerated air” in movie theaters. Theaters back in the day would actually advertise their cool environments to entice people to head out to the movies.
- Post-WWII
After World War II, people who could afford air conditioning were a true minority in the population, so if you owned a window unit it was really something to brag about. Back then, only about a million people owned an AC (in 1953).
- Economic Boom
Air conditioning was a huge thing in terms of helping other areas of the United States grow and thrive. Places like Texas and Florida weren’t particularly popular places to live before air conditioning became the norm, so you can bet that the growing populations over the years had a lot to do with air conditioning taking over and cooling things down in those parts of the country.
- First Residential AC Unit
Can you believe that the first residential air conditioning unit was a whopping 20 feet long? It was also 7 feet high, so you can bet that it towered over most folks of the day. It came along in 1914 and began a revolution that would soon become the norm all across the United States.
- Air Conditioning and Medical Advances
Many medicines and medical environments wouldn’t be possible without cold air preserving them. Cold air tends to kill germs (one reason that hospitals are so very cold). Thanks to air conditioning, there are legions of medical advances that wouldn’t have been on earth today without that blast of cool air.
- Energy Consumption
Air conditioners take a lot of energy to run. Our air conditioners in the United States alone use as much energy as the entirety of Africa for all uses. Wow.
- Food Consumption
There are many foods that are here today that wouldn’t be around if it weren’t for the cool air provided by the air conditioning. Restaurants and many other businesses thrive because there’s a handy air conditioner at work behind the scenes.
- Heat Tolerance
Air conditioners have been around for a long time now, and people want to keep it that way. Over the years, people are less able to handle the heat of hot summer months and those sometimes hot spring days. Thankfully, air conditioning has become very reliable over those same years, so people don’t have to tolerate the heat.
There’s great news for people who appreciate everything about air conditioning: It’s not going away. You can always depend on the great Air Conditioning Darwin Cool Runnings provides. Why? Well, it’s because they’re able to provide the crisp, cool air and environments through reliable units and great workmanship. If you appreciate everything that air conditioning has made possible in the world and want to keep taking advantage of this life-changing invention, it’s easy to do thanks to the ready availability of reliable air conditioning in this blessed modern world.
