The Makeshift Laboratory
(Syracuse, N.Y., Sep. 9, 2002) ¿ Today, home air conditioning is basically taken for granted. Air conditioning is pervasive; many people in industrialized nations have yet to experience some facet of life without the benefits of cool indoor comfort. But in the late 1920s, residential air conditioning was still very much in its infancy. Carrier began marketing its first residential Weathermaker in 1928. It was a winter air conditioner that heated, humidified, cleaned and circulated the air in the home during cold weather with the provision for adding summer cooling. But since cold water was the only source of cooling, Carrier and his associates planned the development of a refrigerating machine suitable for home application.
During the development process, an interesting dilemma evolved. How could this new cooling apparatus be tested? The devised solution was even more intriguing than the problem. Carrier decided to install these residential air conditioning systems in the homes of Carrier executives Irvine Lyle and Oscar Bate. Both lived in New Jersey.
The object of the testing was to discover three things. Carrier hoped to find a relationship between the amount of refrigeration required and the outdoor-indoor temperature difference. Two methods of application would also be compared against each other from the standpoint of comfort. In the Lyle residence, the cold air was introduced near the ceiling, and in the Bate residence, it was introduced near the floor. Finally, the performance of the high-pressure type of coil was compared with the low-pressure type in this particular application.
Although the report that resulted was only preliminary, it paved the way for even more research at more residences. Although the residential market virtually disappeared with the Great Depression, it returned at breakneck speed after World War II.
Today, Carrier Weathermakers are responsible for keeping millions of people cool. U.S. Census Bureau estimates place air conditioning in more than 80 percent of all U.S. homes, and closer to 90 percent in the South. That's a few more than the living test labs of the two Carrier executives it started with 75 years ago.
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