This past few weeks in the UK have been a pretty crazy. Recent snowfall has seen the country come to a bit of a standstill, Gatwick closed its runaway, cars were slipping all over the road and people were sleeping in pubs overnight! And looking back at Summer, I’m sure we all remember the unbearable heatwaves.

These temperatures, on extreme ends of the scale, have reinforced the need for continued development of HVAC in the UK. Not only does HVAC keep your office and home at a comfortable temperature all year round, allowing us to build things like skyscrapers and huge office buildings.

So where did HVAC begin? And how did it come to be such a crucial part of modern-day technology?

What is HVAC?

HVAC stands for Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning. When we refer to HVAC, we are talking about the technology that captures air around it and regulates the airflow between indoor and outdoor areas.

HVAC comprises of a lot more than just keeping you warm in winter or cool in summer, HVAC also encompasses air filtration devices, cleaning the air you breath to improve your health. This side of HVAC has become a lot more prevalent since the pandemic.

The first uses of HVAC

When you think of ways to generate heat or heat up a cold room, a classic fireplace might spring to mind. But there were ways of heating rooms before fireplaces. The oldest known form of HVAC originates from South Korea and is called the Korean Ondol method.

Going back thousands of years to the Iron Age, the Ondol heating method involved a furnace that would heat up pipes under the floor. The stone that was placed above these pipes would then retain the heat and stay warm. This was revolutionary and lay the groundworks for HVAC and underfloor heating.

The Romans developed a very similar system that made use of open channels underneath the floor, which carried heat from a fire to heat an entire room.

Modern HVAC

As the 20th Century rolled around, some big breakthroughs were made which really benefitted the HVAC industry. Nikola Tesla developed alternating current powered electrical motors, which opened many new possibilities, including osculating fans. In 1902, an engineer from New York called Willis Carrier invented the first rendition of modern air conditioning. It utilised air that was pushed through water-cooled coils.

20 years later, he invented the world’s first centrifugal chiller. In 1922, the company that Carrier founded was also credited with installing the first cooling system for theatres in Los Angeles. This machine sucked air in and pumped it out through higher vents, resulting in more equally distributed cooling which was much more effective.

HVAC is a given in the modern day, it is an essential part of any building project. Not only have these developments in HVAC made the change in temperatures more manageable, but HVAC has actually been saving lives. In the USA, a study found that between 1960 and 2004, heat-related deaths were 80% lower than the previous period. The development of mainstream air conditioning played a big part in that.

More recently, Mitsubishi released the Plasma Quad Connect, which is a bolt-on air purifying device that is attached to existing air conditioning units to purify the air that is pushed through the air vents and into the room. This was utilised through the recent pandemic as Mitsubishi claim this unit in particular can neutralise 99.8% of SARS-CoV-2.

Okappy and HVAC

Here at Okappy, we have seen our field service management software help HVAC companies streamline their day to day business processes, saving them time and money. On average, Okappy users are seeing savings of 4 hours per week per member of staff, freeing up more time for your workforce.

If you are in the HVAC industry and would like to find out how Okappy’s field service management platform can help your team get the job done, get in touch with our team and book a demo today.