18 Fun Facts about Heating and Air Conditioning

1.   In the 1940s, a window AC cost roughly $350. That’s around $3,500 in today’s dollars!

2.  If your home has lower humidity, it’ll feel colder than if it were more humid.

3.  Poorly-installed heating and air conditioning systems in New York City cost building owners anywhere between $130 to $180 million every year (that’s why it’s important to choose professionals like Jansen Heating & Cooling’s highly-trained technicians for your HVAC installation).

4. Ancient Romans were the first to use home heating systems. Called a “hypocaust,” theirs worked by sending heat through the floors and walls of homes.

5.  Closing air vents to lower your utility bill is a myth. Doing this actually makes your energy consumption rise, due to a decrease in efficiency. Closing vents also puts more pressure on your compressor, which can result in a system breakdown.

6.  A properly installed and maintained HVAC system will last 15 to 25 years, depending on the manufacturer. At Jansen, we help customers choose the right equipment for their home’s size, how they use the space, and how long they plan to live there.

7.  Movie theaters were some of the first places to have air conditioning. It was used as a strategy to get more people to come to the movies. That ploy worked handsomely in the hot summertime, and this is why studios started saving their “summer blockbusters” for June.

8.  Since the invention of air conditioning, humans’ tolerance for heat has gone down. A hot day feels less comfortable today than it would have centuries ago.

9.  When AC was first made available to consumers, outputs were measured in Ice Power: how many blocks of ice it would take to produce the same amount of cooling.

10.  The motivation for the first AC wasn’t comfort. In 1902, Willis Carrier created one for a publishing company that was having problems with ink control and paper expansion/shrinkage due to changing humidity.

11.  Some 90 percent of new single-family homes built in the US today include air conditioning.

12.  The first fully-air-conditioned home was constructed in 1913, in Minneapolis. Unfortunately, owner Charles Gates passed away before he could enjoy his cooled house.

13.  Herbert Hoover was the first President to enjoy AC. He spent $30,000 to install the system in the Oval Office in 1929.

14.  Air conditioners don’t only than cool the air. They also remove humidity. Setting your thermostat fan to “on” all day is a bad idea for humidity. Choose the “auto” position, where the furnace will blow air only when the cooling system is running. When you leave the fan gusting all day, moisture is blown back inside and affects your humidity.

15.  Fans do little to cool the air; they produce a “wind chill effect” by evaporating sweat and lowering your body temperature.

16.  Packard introduced the first car with optional air conditioning in 1939. It was very costly and unpopular, probably because the evaporator and blower system took up half the trunk space!

17.  American researchers found that the chance of dying on extremely hot days has fallen more than 80 percent over the last 50 years. The research team correlated this drop to the rise in air conditioning.

18.  Updating your HVAC system can save energy and money. Jansen, one of the most popular Cincinnati HVAC companies, can provide regular maintenance to lengthen the life of your system, and advise you on how to make it more fuel-efficient