Air Conditioning Past and Present

Air conditioning has been around for thousands of years. Beginning with the ancient Egyptians, the world has always found a way to cool off. Of course, you won’t find any renderings of air conditioning units on the walls of the great pyramids. But you might just find frescoes of people waving fans against the walls of domestic dwellings. What are they doing in those pictures? Trying to generate a breeze? Actually, they’re engaging in oldest known air conditioning process: evaporative cooling. As a thin stream of water ran down its outer walls, a building was cooled on the interior as the waving fans sped evaporation, drawing heat from the interior to exterior.

By today’s cost standards, evaporative air conditioning would be prohibitive. Imagine the cost of hiring a crew to fan your house from mid May to late September. Thankfully, we now have the option of buying window units or, better yet, centralized air. Whereas air conditioning was once the privilege of the wealthy, it’s now rare to find a building that doesn’t have it. Nonetheless, air conditioning can still drive up utility bills and present financial obstacles when a central cooling unit needs replacing.

In either case, there are ways to minimize your air conditioning costs. One way to reduce cost is to buy an eco friendly air unit that uses less power; and the best way to ease replacement cost is to go with a heating and air conditioning company that offers financing. While the latter solution might seem obvious, it’s shocking how often homeowners sign onto a bad agreement that demands money up front; has a high interest rate and offers a short warranty. Of course, you could just have your children wave the walls of your house. But that wouldn’t be much of a summer vacation.