How Air Conditioners Change the World: Bringing Far-reaching and Unexpected Influence

OFweek smart home network news According to foreign media reports, imagine if we can freely control the weather, press the button, the weather can become warm or cool, wet or dry, what will it mean? The answer will be many: There will be no more droughts and floods, no more heat waves and frozen roads, the desert will become an oasis, and crops will no longer wither. Air conditioning is one of the 50 great inventions that have made modern economy In fact, in order to change the climate, humans have made some incredibly sounding ideas, including spraying sulfuric acid in the upper atmosphere, or throwing lime in the sea. However, even if technology is advanced to such an advanced level today, we cannot control the weather accurately – at least outdoors. Since the invention of air conditioning, we have been able to control the indoor "climate", which has also brought some far-reaching and unexpected impact. Since our ancestors mastered the use of fire, human beings were able to warm themselves. In contrast, cooling is more challenging. The strange Roman emperor Elagablus sent slaves to the mountain to dig ice and snow, and then piled in his garden, using the breeze to blow cool air into the room. Before the advent of artificial ice-making technology, if winter in New England became mild, it could lead to an “ice shortage”. Willis Carrier quickly discovered that this kind of humidity control device has a wider application potential Humidity problem There is no doubt that this is not a solution that can be promoted. But until the 19th century, an entrepreneur named Frederic Tudor of Boston in the United States used similar methods to solve the problem of cooling while accumulating a lot of wealth. He cuts ice from the frozen lakes of New England in winter, uses sawdust for thermal insulation, and then ships to the Caribbean, Europe and even distant India to help people spend the hot summer. Before the advent of artificial ice-making technology, if winter in New England became mild, it could lead to an “ice shortage”. The air conditioner we are familiar with appeared in 1902, but when it first appeared, it was not related to human comfort. At that time, Sackett & Wilhelms Printing & Publishing Company in New York City was often affected by humidity when it was printing in color. For example, to print 4 colors, the same sheet must be printed 4 times, and if the humidity changes between the two printings, the sheet will slightly expand or shrink, even if the 1mm change will make the final result very bad . The printing and publishing company found a Buffalo forging company that built the heating machine and hoped that the other party would develop a system to control the humidity. A young engineer named Willis Carrier found that the use of coils equipped with compressed ammonia can cool the circulating air and stabilize the humidity to 55%. The problems of printing and publishing companies have been solved. More extensive applications Buffalo Forging Company soon began selling Willis Carrier's inventions to places that suffer from humidity problems, such as flour mills and Gillette Razor Group - excess moisture will make the razor live rust. For these early industrial customers, it is not important to lower the temperature to a level that is more comfortable for workers. This is only an incidental benefit. However, Willis Carrier quickly discovered that this type of humidity control device has a wider application potential. By 1906, he began to explore how this "comfort" was applied to public buildings such as theaters. This is a witty choice. Historically, theaters often closed their doors during the summer because they faced a variety of safety hazards: no windows, crowded people, and the need to use a fire to provide lighting before the lights appeared. New England ice has been briefly popular for some time. In the summer of 1880, Madison Square Garden in New York used 4 tons of ice during the day, and a 2.4-meter fan was blown over the ice, and then sent cooling air through the pipes to the audience. Willis Carrier's "climate regulator" is obviously more practical. In the 1920s when the cinema grew rapidly, the public first felt the coolness of the air conditioner, which quickly became a major selling point of the movie. Leading the technology of change The rise of Hollywood's summer blockbuster traditions and large shopping malls can all be traced directly to the invention of Willis Carrier. However, air conditioning not only provides convenience, it is also a revolutionary technology that has a profound impact on where human beings live and how they can survive. If the computer is too hot or too humid, it will stop working, so the air conditioner can make the field work uninterruptedly to maintain the operation of the Internet. In fact, if the factory cannot control the air quality, we simply cannot get the silicon chips needed to make computers. Air conditioning also transformed the building. Historically, if you want to build a cool building in a hot climate, it means thick walls and high ceilings. It also requires balconies, courtyards, and windows facing away from the sun. In the southern United States, a dogtrot house is popular, in which the middle of the house is turned into an aisle for ventilation. Before the advent of air conditioning, it was not wise to build glass-walled skyscrapers - people working at high levels would undoubtedly be baked. Air conditioning also changed the population distribution. Without air conditioning, it is hard to imagine a city like Dubai or Singapore will rise. In the second half of the 20th century, American residential units grew rapidly. The so-called “Sun Belt”—a warm area south of 37 degrees north latitude in the United States, from California to Florida—has soared from 28% to 40% of the US population. As many retirees moved from the north to the south, they also changed the local political balance. The writer Steven Johnson declared confidently that it was the air conditioning that made Ronald Reagan's election. Reagan took power in 1980, when Americans used air-conditioning more than half of the world. In many ways, the rapid development of air conditioning is a good thing. Research shows that air conditioning reduces death rates during hot weather. The heat will also make jail prisoners become cranky, and air conditioning can calm them down. When the temperature in the examination room exceeds 21 or 22 degrees Celsius, the student's score on the mathematics test begins to drop. In the office, air conditioning can make us more efficient. According to an earlier study, air conditioning enabled American government typists to do 24% more work. Economists have also confirmed the relationship between productivity and keeping cool. Hard to ignore the reality William Nordhaus, a professor of economics at the United States, divides the world into units based on latitude and longitude, and lists the climate, economic output, and population within each unit. He found that the higher the average temperature, the lower the productivity of people. Another study showed that for countries with hot climates, years above the average temperature are not conducive to productivity growth, but in the colder years, the opposite is true. The researchers pointed out that the peak of productivity occurs when the temperature is 18 to 22 degrees Celsius. However, one problem that cannot be ignored is that when you cool indoors, the price is that the outside becomes hotter and hotter. A study conducted in Phoenix, Arizona, USA showed that the hot air emitted from the air-conditioner to the outside would cause the city's nighttime temperature to rise by 2 degrees Celsius. Of course, the rise in temperature will make the air conditioner use more and make the outdoor hotter. In the subway transportation system, the cooling system of the train will also make people on the platform feel hot. This is followed by the issue of energy sources for air conditioning. The electrical energy required for air-conditioning operation is mainly from the combustion of natural gas or coal, and the coolant used by air conditioners will also become a powerful greenhouse gas in the event of a leak. The current air-conditioning technology has become cleaner and more environmentally friendly. However, the demand for air-conditioning has grown so rapidly that even with the most optimistic estimates, by 2050, air-conditioning consumption will increase by 8 times. This is a worrying news for climate change issues. After all, controlling the climate outside is far beyond the capabilities of current humans.