Home Heating In America
Early in the history of America, one of the major additions to any home was a source of warmth.
Most of the colonies at that time were all located along the east coast of the continent and most were in the northern latitudes.
What this meant was that during the winters most of the colonies were bitter cold.
To counter these freezing temperatures all early homes were equipped with simple open wood burning brick fireplaces that not only provided warmth to make it more comfortable in the winter months, but could also be used for cooking meals.
In 1745 this began to change as a new comfort source was introduced and slowly accepted as an alternative to the open fireplace.
This was the invention of the Franklin stove, by Benjamin Franklin.
This new stove proved to be much more efficient in providing a central source of heating in a home.
The stove was constructed of cast iron and could be centrally placed.
When it was fired up, the cast iron efficiently and evenly radiated warmth from the stove to all areas of the home.
This stove was so brilliantly designed and effective it is still in use today.
The other benefit of Franklin's stove was that it could also be used for cooking.
By 1885, heating in the majority of the homes in America was supplied by either brick fireplaces or the Franklin stove.
By the end of the 1800s however, a new invention hit the scene.
This was the invention of the cast iron radiator.
The cast iron radiator came about by necessity because the large metropolitan areas of the country were being filled with apartments.
These apartments needed a centrally located source of heat that could be made available to all the tenants in the apartment building to keep them warm.
A coal-fired boiler that was usually located in the basement of the building fed the cast iron radiators in each apartment.
The boiler would deliver hot water throughout the building to each radiator.
As technical innovation continued, gas and oil fired versions of the boiler eventually replaced all of the coal-fired models.
In the 20th century Willis Carrier invented the first process to cool air by means of a mechanical process.
With his invention a new industry was born, air conditioning.
This eventually swept across America and it wasn't long before these air conditioners began to show up in housing.
Air conditioners were much more common in the south and southwest than in the northern states.
The other innovation that developed from this was the idea to combine both cooling and heating in one device.
This combination became the dawn of central air conditioning and heating in homes.
These dual units generally consisted of a heating unit in the attic that was either gas fired or electric and a separate unit outside that composed the cooling unit.
These have been even further refined today into a single heat pump technology designed to be more efficient and use less electricity than earlier models.
Most of the colonies at that time were all located along the east coast of the continent and most were in the northern latitudes.
What this meant was that during the winters most of the colonies were bitter cold.
To counter these freezing temperatures all early homes were equipped with simple open wood burning brick fireplaces that not only provided warmth to make it more comfortable in the winter months, but could also be used for cooking meals.
In 1745 this began to change as a new comfort source was introduced and slowly accepted as an alternative to the open fireplace.
This was the invention of the Franklin stove, by Benjamin Franklin.
This new stove proved to be much more efficient in providing a central source of heating in a home.
The stove was constructed of cast iron and could be centrally placed.
When it was fired up, the cast iron efficiently and evenly radiated warmth from the stove to all areas of the home.
This stove was so brilliantly designed and effective it is still in use today.
The other benefit of Franklin's stove was that it could also be used for cooking.
By 1885, heating in the majority of the homes in America was supplied by either brick fireplaces or the Franklin stove.
By the end of the 1800s however, a new invention hit the scene.
This was the invention of the cast iron radiator.
The cast iron radiator came about by necessity because the large metropolitan areas of the country were being filled with apartments.
These apartments needed a centrally located source of heat that could be made available to all the tenants in the apartment building to keep them warm.
A coal-fired boiler that was usually located in the basement of the building fed the cast iron radiators in each apartment.
The boiler would deliver hot water throughout the building to each radiator.
As technical innovation continued, gas and oil fired versions of the boiler eventually replaced all of the coal-fired models.
In the 20th century Willis Carrier invented the first process to cool air by means of a mechanical process.
With his invention a new industry was born, air conditioning.
This eventually swept across America and it wasn't long before these air conditioners began to show up in housing.
Air conditioners were much more common in the south and southwest than in the northern states.
The other innovation that developed from this was the idea to combine both cooling and heating in one device.
This combination became the dawn of central air conditioning and heating in homes.
These dual units generally consisted of a heating unit in the attic that was either gas fired or electric and a separate unit outside that composed the cooling unit.
These have been even further refined today into a single heat pump technology designed to be more efficient and use less electricity than earlier models.
