THE EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN AIR CONDITIONER

Air conditioning is an essential installation in Sarasota, Florida, homes. This appliance is so common
today that it’s easy to forget it wasn’t always a standard feature. The modern air conditioner has come a
long way since its inception in the early 1900s. Take a look at the evolution of air conditioning and some
of the modern enhancements that have made this technology more efficient and enjoyable than ever.

Primitive Cooling Methods

Humans have always had a desire to fight off the sweltering heat of summer. In ancient Rome, the
wealthy used the aqueduct system to circulate water through the walls to cool the area.

Hand fans were the easiest method of personal cooling. These have been a popular accessory in China
for over 3,000 years. In the Middle East, massive wind towers used the same idea on a grander scale to
capture and amplify breezes. Fortunately, these inefficient and often awkward solutions were eventually
replaced with more effective air conditioning technology.

The First Modern Air Conditioner

Willis Carrier developed the earliest version of our current air conditioning technology in 1902. He
created a mechanical unit that blew air over coils filled with cold water.

The invention was designed to control humidity more than temperature. Cold air can hold less moisture
than warm. Carrier’s invention helped keep humidity levels low for the Sackett & Wilhelms printing
plant, where moisture was wreaking havoc on the paper and ink. Though early air conditioners were
large and expensive, the technology behind their operation is essentially the same as what we rely on
today.

The Evolution of Refrigerant

When cool water wasn’t available for early air conditioning systems, people used various refrigerants
instead. Refrigerants can convert between liquid and gaseous states, absorbing and dispelling heat in the
process. Contained in a closed loop, refrigerant can efficiently move heat from one area to another as it’s
either compressed or evaporated.

For many years, people preferred R22 refrigerant for their air conditioning systems. However, they later
discovered that this substance was doing irreparable damage to the ozone layer. New systems now rely
on the more environmentally friendly R410A refrigerant.
You can no longer purchase an air conditioner that uses R22. The substance will become illegal on
January 1, 2020. If you’re still using an air conditioner that relies on R22 refrigerant, you’ll want to
upgrade your cooling system before this date.

High-Efficiency Units

In an effort to meet the growing demand for energy-efficient appliances, the HVAC industry has begun
developing a broad range of high-efficiency units. Most air conditioning units have lowered their energy
use by implementing high-efficiency motors and increasing the heat exchange surface area.

Efficiency for air conditioners is indicated by their SEER rating. A system with a SEER of 13 uses about
2,308 watts of energy each hour, while one with a SEER rating of 16 uses just 1875 watts.

The higher the SEER rating for your air conditioner, the less energy it’ll ultimately use. For the consumer,
this translates to a greener home and lower utility bills.

Compressor Innovations

AC compressors have evolved significantly in recent years, offering another way to increase comfort and
efficiency while cooling the home. Compressors traditionally had one mode. This component was either
on or off. When the compressor was functioning, it pumped cooled air throughout the house.

Today, you’ll find two-stage and variable speed compressors. A two-stage compressor has two speeds to
choose from, so it provides the option of running at a lower speed when you need less cooling. This will
still help lower the temperature in the home, but it uses less energy and ultimately gives the homeowner
greater control over the home’s temperature. Variable speed compressors have three or more speeds, so
you can easily make minute adjustments to your home cooling.

Evaporative cooling

Since prehistoric times, snow and ice were used for cooling. The business of harvesting ice during winter
and storing for use in summer became popular towards the late 17th century.This practice was replaced
by mechanical ice-making machines.

The basic concept behind air conditioning is said to have been applied in ancient Egypt, where reeds
were hung in windows and were moistened with trickling water. The evaporation of water cooled the air
blowing through the window. This process also made the air more humid, which can be beneficial in a
dry desert climate. Other techniques in medieval Persia involved the use of cisterns and wind towers to
cool buildings during the hot season
The 2nd-century Chinese mechanical engineer and inventor Ding Huan of the Han Dynasty invented a
rotary fan for air conditioning, with seven wheels 3 m (10 ft) in diameter and manually powered by
prisoners. In 747, Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–762) of the Tang Dynasty (618–907) had the Cool Hall (Liang
Dian 涼殿) built in the imperial palace, which the Tang Yulin describes as having water-powered fan
wheels for air conditioning as well as rising jet streams of water from fountains. During the subsequent
Song Dynasty (960–1279), written sources mentioned the air conditioning rotary fan as even more
widely used.

In the 17th century, the Dutch inventor Cornelis Drebbel demonstrated "Turning Summer into Winter" as
an early form of modern air conditioning for James I of England by adding salt to water.

Development of mechanical cooling

In 1758, Benjamin Franklin and John Hadley, a chemistry professor at Cambridge University, conducted
an experiment to explore the principle of evaporation as a means to rapidly cool an object. Franklin and
Hadley confirmed that evaporation of highly volatile liquids (such as alcohol and ether) could be used to
drive down the temperature of an object past the freezing point of water. They conducted their
experiment with the bulb of a mercury thermometer as their object and with a bellows used to speed up
the evaporation. They lowered the temperature of the thermometer bulb down to −14 °C (7 °F) while
the ambient temperature was 18 °C (64 °F). Franklin noted that, soon after they passed the freezing
point of water 0 °C (32 °F), a thin film of ice formed on the surface of the thermometer's bulb and that
the ice mass was about 6 mm (1⁄4 in) thick when they stopped the experiment upon reaching −14 °C (7
°F). Franklin concluded: "From this experiment one may see the possibility of freezing a man to death on
a warm summer's day."

In 1820, English scientist and inventor Michael Faraday discovered that compressing and liquefying
ammonia could chill air when the liquefied ammonia was allowed to evaporate. In 1842, Florida
physician John Gorrie used compressor technology to create ice, which he used to cool air for his
patients in his hospital in Apalachicola, Florida. He hoped to eventually use his ice-making machine to
regulate the temperature of buildings. He even envisioned centralized air conditioning that could cool
entire cities. Though his prototype leaked and performed irregularly, Gorrie was granted a patent in 1851
for his ice-making machine. Though his process improved the artificial production of ice, his hopes for its
success vanished soon afterwards when his chief financial backer died and Gorrie did not get the money
he needed to develop the machine. According to his biographer, Vivian M. Sherlock, he blamed the "Ice
King", Frederic Tudor, for his failure, suspecting that Tudor had launched a smear campaign against his
invention. Dr. Gorrie died impoverished in 1855, and the dream of commonplace air conditioning went
away for 50 years.

James Harrison's first mechanical ice-making machine began operation in 1851 on the banks of the
Barwon River at Rocky Point in Geelong, Australia. His first commercial ice-making machine followed in
1853, and his patent for an ether vapor compression refrigeration system was granted in 1855. This
novel system used a compressor to force the refrigeration gas to pass through a condenser, where it
cooled down and liquefied. The liquefied gas then circulated through the refrigeration coils and
vaporized again, cooling down the surrounding system. The machine produced 3,000 kilograms (6,600
lb) of ice per day.

Though Harrison had commercial success establishing a second ice company back in Sydney in 1860, he
later entered the debate over how to compete against the American advantage of ice-refrigerated beef
sales to the United Kingdom. He wrote: "Fresh meat frozen and packed as if for a voyage, so that the
refrigerating process may be continued for any required period", and in 1873 prepared the sailing ship
Norfolk for an experimental beef shipment to the United Kingdom. His choice of a cold room system
instead of installing a refrigeration system upon the ship itself proved disastrous when the ice was
consumed faster than expected.

Electrical air conditioning

The creation of the modern electrical air conditioning unit and industry is credited to the American
inventor Willis H. Carrier After graduating from Cornell University, Carrier found a job at the Buffalo
Forge Company. There, he began experimenting with air conditioning as a way to solve an application
problem for the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Company in Brooklyn, New York. The first
air conditioner, designed and built in Buffalo, New York by Carrier, began working on 17 July 1902.

Designed to improve manufacturing process control in a printing plant, Carrier's invention controlled not
only temperature but also humidity. Carrier used his knowledge of the heating of objects with steam and
reversed the process. Instead of sending air through hot coils, he sent it through cold coils (filled with
cold water). The air was cooled, and thereby the amount of moisture in the air could be controlled,
which in turn made the humidity in the room controllable. The controlled temperature and humidity
helped maintain consistent paper dimensions and ink alignment. Later, Carrier's technology was applied
to increase productivity in the workplace, and The Carrier Air Conditioning Company of America was
formed to meet rising demand. Over time, air conditioning came to be used to improve comfort in
homes and automobiles as well. Residential sales expanded dramatically in the 1950s.

In 1906, Stuart W. Cramer of Charlotte was exploring ways to add moisture to the air in his textile mill.
Cramer coined the term "air conditioning", using it in a patent claim he filed that year as an analogue to
"water conditioning", then a well-known process for making textiles easier to process. He combined
moisture with ventilation to "condition" and change the air in the factories, controlling the humidity so
necessary in textile plants. Willis Carrier adopted the term and incorporated it into the name of his
company.