The majority of us take air conditioning for granted nowadays, but the origins of these units will surprise you. For example in America in the cooling plants, rather than using the refrigerants that we are used to today they actually used ammonia! It wasn’t until the 1920s when it was decided that a safer option would be a refrigerant of some kind. As soon as this was developed air conditioning was installed in cinemas, shopping centres and government buildings in America.
Air conditioning first arrived in the House of Chambers in 1928 and soon to follow was the Senate. The White House West Wing was next in line for a refurbishment and during the next 30 years air conditioning found its way into public buildings across Washington DC.
It was soon realised the benefits of having a temperature control in working environments as employee productivity increased. Just like there are snow days, there also used to be heat days which meant that staff had days off when temperatures were just too high to work in. In fact, during one particularly hot summer in Washington during 1953 there were a huge 26,000 federal employees sent home!
The more comfortable the temperatures were to work in they found productivity increased (it had been measured at a 24% rise) meaning room for more employees. It was during 1955 that the federal advisory panel decided that air conditioning was now a necessity which meant that later on that year the General Services Administration installed $181 million worth of air conditioning in federal buildings.
Now we aren’t suggesting that the only reason that the American government has grown was solely to do with air conditioning however Richard Baker, a Senate historian, proposed back in the 1950s that there were just 2,500 members of Congress and todays figure is 6 times this.
It is important that you have a regulated temperature in your working environment especially as now air conditioning is so much more advanced as it filters the air too. This means that not only are you kept cool but the air you are breathing in is cleaner because allergens have been removed. To ensure that your unit is running effectively you can run some basic maintenance checks yourself but it is advised that you have it serviced annually.
The majority of us take air conditioning for granted nowadays, but the origins of these units will surprise you. For example in America in the cooling plants, rather than using the refrigerants that we are used to today they actually used ammonia! It wasn’t until the 1920s when it was decided that a safer option would be a refrigerant of some kind. As soon as this was developed air conditioning was installed in cinemas, shopping centres and government buildings in America.
Air conditioning first arrived in the House of Chambers in 1928 and soon to follow was the Senate. The White House West Wing was next in line for a refurbishment and during the next 30 years air conditioning found its way into public buildings across Washington DC.
It was soon realised the benefits of having a temperature control in working environments as employee productivity increased. Just like there are snow days, there also used to be heat days which meant that staff had days off when temperatures were just too high to work in. In fact, during one particularly hot summer in Washington during 1953 there were a huge 26,000 federal employees sent home!
The more comfortable the temperatures were to work in they found productivity increased (it had been measured at a 24% rise) meaning room for more employees. It was during 1955 that the federal advisory panel decided that air conditioning was now a necessity which meant that later on that year the General Services Administration installed $181 million worth of air conditioning in federal buildings.
Now we aren’t suggesting that the only reason that the American government has grown was solely to do with air conditioning however Richard Baker, a Senate historian, proposed back in the 1950s that there were just 2,500 members of Congress and todays figure is 6 times this.
It is important that you have a regulated temperature in your working environment especially as now air conditioning is so much more advanced as it filters the air too. This means that not only are you kept cool but the air you are breathing in is cleaner because allergens have been removed. To ensure that your unit is running effectively you can run some basic maintenance checks yourself but it is advised that you have it serviced annually.
Photo by Pixabay