Air Conditioners Make Life in the Desert a Breeze

I'm writing this article from my home in sunny Arizona. It's the middle of April, and we're supposed to hit 90 degrees this weekend. Some years, we've already hit 100 by this point in spring. Summer temperatures surpass 120 degrees Fahrenheit, which melts my brain just thinking about it.

One would think that with temperatures that high, being a year-round resident would be impossible for anyone that isn't a cactus. But as long as you have a good air conditioning unit that doesn't need any repair, living in the desert, or any other hot climate, is definitely manageable.

The concept of air conditioning is nothing new. The basic premise uses evaporation as a means of cooling air. In ancient Rome, wealthy individuals ran aqueducts through the walls of their homes to cool down the air inside. Giant fans were used in ancient China to circulate and cool down air, and in the medieval Middle East, the concept of rotating air was added to water for increased effect. Fans and other wind sources were directed over indoor pools of water. This caused the surface water to evaporate, and pushed that cooler air from the evaporation on through the building.

A major step toward our modern air conditioning was discovered by Ben Franklin and John Hadley in 1758. They experimented with the evaporation of not just water, but other liquids, including highly volatile ones such as ether and alcohol. Using a mercury bulb thermometer, they were able to evaporate these other liquids and cool the thermometer well below the freezing point of water, despite the warm temperature of the room they were in.

Approximately 50 years later, Frederic Tudor of Boston, began harvesting ice from frozen lakes in the winter. He eventually developed an insulated ice box for customers to store their ice in, and established a profitable world-wide trade business, earning the nickname of Ice King. While ice was used mainly at that time to cool food, in the 1840's, US Physician and scientist John Gorrie, used ice to cool down ambient temperature as well. He suspended blocks of ice from the ceiling in a basin, and since heat rises and cold air sinks, the cooler air then settled down to where the patient sickbeds were.

Then in 1902, the first modern electrical air conditioner was invented in Buffalo, NY by Willis Carrier. This machine differed from other air conditioners of the past in that it controlled not only temperature, but humidity levels as well. From window units to central air conditioning systems, swamp coolers to whole house fans, over a hundred years later, we still use a variety of machines to change the temperature and humidity of our air. And as spring gets hot, it's a good idea to contact your local HVAC contractor to make sure whatever machine you have will keep you cool in the summer so you can survive, and even thrive, in whatever temperature or climate you choose to live in.