With the warmer months approaching, it is easy to be reminded of the comforts an air conditioning unit can bring. Over two-thirds of American homes have air conditioner, with heating and AC being more common in single family homes than in apartment buildings’ housing units.
With air conditioning being so popular in American culture it makes you wonder what our ancestors did in the sweltering weather before they had access to this cool technology. Here are some ways our ancestors dealt with the hot weather in the olden days.
Invented in 1902 by Willis Carrier as a way to control air quality, humidity, and to improve manufacturing process control in a printing plant, air conditioning was never meant to be used for residential homes. The positive effects on the workers were incidental and didn’t become prevalent in American homes until after World War II.
But before then, people learned how to build their homes differently. The oldest example is living underground. Cave dwellers would benefit from a cool 50 degrees Fahrenheit temperature year round. This approach included split-level dwellings with spacious basements built into a hillside.
More recently, architects discovered that using thick stone, adobe, or brick when creating homes would make the heat harder to penetrate. The rooms in the house were designed to have higher ceilings, as the heat would rise making it less stuffy for the people below. When electricity was invented, they would use ceiling fans to pull hot air up during the summer, and push warm air down during the winter.
If you didn’t have the option for electricity, you took advantage of the stack effect. This worked by opening your stairwells to vent hot air upstairs. Because of this rooms on the top of the house were only used during the night with the windows open.
Homeowners would also figure out how to plant trees to block the harsh sun. Shade trees were planted on the west and east sides of the house to prevent the sun from warming the homes interior.People would simply go outside and enjoy a cool breeze on their porch. Eventually, this habit became a standard for socializing.
Or when all else failed? You would take a nap! Countries like Spain still practice this method of going to sleep when the sun was at its strongest. They would resume their work late in the afternoon and then gather late at night.
Don’t want to be stuck without air conditioning? Then it is important to invest the proper AC maintenance and use an experienced air conditioning repair service for larger jobs. Choose a reliable air conditioning company to help with all of your air conditioning needs, such as installation and AC repair. Your HVAC unit will last for 12 years if correctly taken care of, so investing time in now will save you money in the future!
