Air Conditioners Changed the World And Will Change It Again


 

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You do not know how important air conditioning is to you until you have to have it repaired on a hot day. Sometimes, you might be putting your head in the refrigerator just to keep cool. Air conditioning, hard as it may be to imagine, is actually a fairly new invention. In 1947, the British scholar S. F. Markham saw its potential when he wrote that air conditioning was the greatest contribution to civilization and America was leading the way.

At least on the latter point, Markham was not wrong. By 1980, even though the United states only constituted 5 percent of the world’s population, it accounted for more air conditioning use than the rest of the world combined. This was amazing, considering that the air conditioner window unit had only been invented 48 years before and it was years before it was affordable for everyone.

Of course, this development required a whole new industry. And it was around this time that the demand for central air conditioner repairs began to rise. Some would argue that this has been a mixed blessing. Air conditioning has made many parts of America more livable and air conditioner repairs has provided a lot of jobs for technicians and electricians who undoubtedly need work, particularly as the manufacturing sector has disappeared from the American Rustbelt.

That being said, the energy consumption used in air conditioning can account for the majority of energy that an entire house uses. In commercial areas, this number goes upward. This has helped people medically as well as in terms of their comfort, because air conditioning improves air quality and can relieve those who suffer respiratory conditions like asthma. Nonetheless, it has also taken its toll in terms of injecting more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Around half of America’s energy grid is generated by coal. Whether this will change as natural gas takes center stage remains to be seen. Nonetheless, it poses a challenge for the future and it is a challenge which all in the 21st century will have to work to resolve. Read more about this topic at this link.

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