Air Conditioning – The Future
Air conditioning is a technology that has had a profound effect on virtually everyone who has lived in the latter part of the twentieth century, or the first few years of this one. It would be virtually unthinkable to construct a modern commercial building without considering the comfort of the users, who will be potential customers. The managers of Government and public service buildings also need to consider the comfort of both their own employees, and the public, who often have to visit these buildings on essential business. It is also necessary for transport systems to offer surroundings as comfortable as possible for those who use them.
As well as the public transit systems, air conditioning has become virtually ever present in private vehicles. A vehicle in transit is more susceptible to temperature problems than a static building. For a start, there is a great limit on the amount of shielding of the interior of the vehicle that can be done with blinds or curtains, especially in the areas where the driver needs visibility from any windows. Also, many of the processes involved in powering a vehicle create their own heat. Many days that would not be considered hot by people outside are still uncomfortable to people in vehicles with inefficient, or even non existent, air control systems.
Because air conditioning has brought great benefits to humanity in the developed world ever since it was invented at the start of the twentieth century, we all have a large incentive in keeping it going through the problems which have begun to afflict it. In recent years it ha become painfully obvious that much of humanity’s industrial progress has left extremely severe side effects on the earth’s environment. In the case of air conditioning, the chlorofluorocarbon gases that have been part of the system since the nineteen twenties, have been found to be severely damaging to the earth’s ozone layer.
The absolute necessity of changing the nature of the gases used in contemporary air conditioning systems has led to the development of more acceptable alternatives. These alternatives have only been developed in very recent years, and research is still continuing. Many of the old gases are being replaced in new equipment, with a view to withdrawing them completely within the next twenty years. Many of the chemical companies, such as DuPont, which had produced the original ozone depleting products, are now heavily involved in the development of the safer alternatives.
This phasing in of the new technology of air conditioning will not happen overnight, and m fact there are some situations in which the new systems cannot be used. This means that the future of air conditioning is clouded with considerable uncertainty, which is a great shame as the new technology is so obviously superior. Not only does it not contain any ozone depleting gases, it has also not been responsible for any of the health side effects that plagued its predecessor. The headaches, drowsiness and dizziness suffered by people working close to the old air conditioning systems have been thankfully absent from the tests done with the newly developed gases. We need air conditioning to be part of our future. We can only hope that any problems with the new technology can be solved, and that we can all enjoy better systems of air conditioning into the future.
Sources: Air Conditioning Guide