When was central heat and air invented

The story of their early work follows. This is by no means a comprehensive history — which would take at least one book, if not an encyclopedia. This article will merely highlight some important milestones and provide information not otherwise readily available.

For those who wish to dig deeper, your time and your pocketbook are the only limits. As much as 1. The hows and whys can only be speculated upon, but we do know from archeological evidence that Homo erectus and Austra-lopithecus used fire at that time as a practical tool. At some point the campfire was brought inside caves and huts.

The oldest arrangement was a central fire and a central roof opening for smoke to escape. Later the fire was moved to different parts of a dwelling, and various schemes were tried to improve the draft of the fire by using stones. Crude fireplace heating was used as early as the s A. Castles built at that time had fireplaces that had a short flue to the outside, a crude form of chimney.

All of the early fireplaces were constructed entirely of stone, but casting technology improvements led to the introduction of cast iron firebacks designed to protect the stone from direct fire heat. Louis Savot of France invented the raised grate and designed a circulating fireplace in the early s.

Savot used a hollow iron bottom and back in the hearth, through which cold room air entered at the bottom, was warmed, and entered the room through openings above the mantle. In England, another improvement was to provide combustion air through a duct from the outside.

A French priest actually a Cardinal wrote the first comprehensive manual on fireplace design, Mechanique du Feu , in The science of fireplace construction reached its zenith with Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, who published Chimney Fireplaces in Like fireplaces, stoves also first appeared in the s as crude devices made from clay bricks.

Masonry stoves became common in northern Europe by the s. The stoves, called Russian or Swedish stoves, were very large. Later versions were very ornate, with tile coverings. The earliest metal stoves, appearing after , were made of cast iron hearth firebacks connected together. Later, cast iron sections were designed specifically for stove construction, and Holland and Germany became leading centers for iron stove manufacturing.

The Romans brought the technology to high art, beginning about 80 B. At first the Roman systems heated only the floor, but later systems used heated walls as well, and some were designed as early warm-air heating systems, introducing heated air through floor openings.

The first systems supported the stone floor on pillars over a chamber with a fire at one end. Combustion gases passed under the floor to the other side.

The hollow space below the floor was called the hypocaust , and this name was applied to all the variations of Roman heating systems where an underfloor chamber was used. Later systems used tile flues or hollow tile walls to conduct heated combustion products to eave vents.

The fire was moved outside in a separate furnace chamber. Still later, the hypocaust chamber was eliminated and replaced by floor ducts leading from the furnace to the wall flues.

Roman hypocaust heating systems were used to heat upper-class Roman houses throughout the empire, but are most noted for use as heating systems for public baths. Between 10 B. A test conducted at the well-preserved Constantinian Baths constructed about in Trier showed that these systems were very efficient.

The hypocaust for the audience hall of the bath operated with a floor temperature of 77? F and wall temperatures of 66? The system, of course, was not automatic and not easily controlled. It took two days to preheat. The art and science of hypocaust systems was lost after the fall of the Roman Empire. Western heating science advanced very little in the period of the Dark Ages.

After the 14th century, chimneys appear in written literature. However, their use seems to have spread very slowly. Early chimneys were very large, so as to allow a chimney sweep to climb into them. But the size precipitated such vicious drafts that room divider screens sometimes had to be used to shield the occupants.

Stove heating soon advanced beyond the crude devices first used. Dalesme introduced fresh fuel in the same opening as combustion air, directing all combustion products over already-burning fuel, a design that ensured complete combustion. The earliest stove in North America was probably a cast iron box stove invented by Dr.

John Clarke of the Massachusetts Bay Colony about This type of stove had originated in Holland and was imported into England after By the mids, cast iron box stoves were being manufactured by a number of eastern Colonial American foundries. Stoves continued evolving throughout the s. Notable improvements included the base burner stove invented by Eliphalet Knott in , and the airtight stove invented by Isaac Orr in By the time of the Civil War, cast iron stove manufacturing was a large and well-established industry, particularly in the northeastern U.

By , thousands of different designs many approaching pieces of art in their appearance were produced by dozens of manufacturers. Warm-air heating as we know it may date to around the year , when Emperor Heliogabalus is said to have had a palace warmed by air. A stove was placed in a brick chamber under the rooms. Outside air was ducted into the chamber under the stove, the heated air then flowing through openings into the rooms above.

The first good records of a warm-air system date to the s. These records indicate that the city hall in Luneberg, Germany had a central warm-air system using three furnaces. The heating chamber connected to the rooms above with round ducts that opened under seats. Temperature was individually regulated with iron covers over the duct openings. A similar system was constructed about the same time at Marburg Castle in Germany.

The Industrial Revolution provided the catalyst for more advanced warm-air systems. The ancient Greeks build a temple where the Oracle at Delphi gives out prophesies guided by this divine flame. AD : After the fall of the Roman Empire, heating methods again became more primitive, such as simple fireplaces. The first chimneys appeared. It kept an individual room cool—not ideal for the home, but amazing nonetheless.

And by the 60s, air conditioning had become so popular that it was already installed in millions of homes across the nation. Although they were costly and took a while to gain traction, most homes realized the benefits in due time. Be conscious of the impact when running your unit.

Have you checked that everything is in working order? Check out this article that explains the average lifespan of your HVAC unit. And give us a call at if anything seems off in your home!

The History of Air Conditioning. When was the first time someone turned that dial and felt a refreshing blast of cool air? In the s, thanks to increased American prosperity after World War II, air conditioning units first became widely affordable.

Everyday Americans were able to buy room units and enjoy cool comfort year round. In alone, 1 million air conditioners were sold. Things changed again in the s, when central air was invented. The early central air functioned much as it does today: Using a condenser, a fan, and coils, air makes its way through the unit, gets chilled, and gets dispersed throughout the house. These early central air conditioners used Freon as a refrigerant, a substance later revealed to be an environmental hazard.

At present, roughly two-thirds of American homes have air conditioning.