How Air-Conditioning Conquered America

Emily Badger recounts her personal experiences with air conditioning, reflecting changing attitudes and the technology's spread in American life over the past century.

Emily Badger's personal experience with air conditioning growing up in Chicago

Emily Badger grew up in an old brick three-flat apartment building in Chicago without air conditioning, which was typical at the time. She and her family used passive cooling techniques, such as cross breezes from opened windows and Lake Michigan's breeze. Emily recalls employing strategies like taking cold showers or eating ice cream to cope with the heat. She can't even remember if her schools had air conditioning, indicating it was not a significant part of her childhood or a comfort she often considered.

Emily's shift to an air-conditioned environment when moving to Florida after college

After college, Emily moved to Orlando for her first job and encountered a lifestyle completely reliant on air conditioning. In stark contrast to her upbringing in Chicago, she found herself constantly moving from one air-conditioned space to another—apartment, car, office, and bars were all climate-controlled.

The gradual spread of air conditioning into American homes and culture over the 20th century

Emily explains how air conditioning, invented at the beginning of the 20th century by Willis Carrier, initially focused on controlling temperature, humidity, and air purity for industrial purposes, like in a printing plant where humidity interfered with the printing process. Over time, this technology moved from industrial settings to places like theaters, where it was used as a marketing tool to draw people in.

As the technology advanced and became more affordable, it made its way into American homes through w ...

Air conditioning has fundamentally altered the course of architectural and urban development. The way buildings interact with the outdoor environment has shifted from natural cooling strategies to a dependence on technology to manage interior climates.

How buildings were designed to interact with the outdoor climate before air conditioning

Prior to the widespread adoption of air conditioning, architectural design was informed by local climates and the need to manage indoor temperatures through design features that worked with the environment.

Homes and buildings were thoughtfully designed with features like thick walls, raised foundations, and porches to passively cool and ventilate spaces

In areas like the southwest U.S., homes adapted to the heat with features such as thick adobe walls that acted as natural insulators. Southeastern homes were constructed with raised foundations to avoid heat absorbed from the ground and equipped with large windows to facilitate cross-ventilation. Widespread strategies also included high ceilings to keep living spaces cool by allowing hot air to rise above.

The architectural styles and layouts of buildings varied based on the local climate, creating regional diversity

Emily Badger explains that these climate-adaptive features led to a diversity of architectural styles across regions. Buildings in Georgia were markedly different from those in Arizona or Chicago because each was designed to meet the specific climatic challenges of its location.

How air conditioning has fundamentally changed building design

With the advent of air conditioning, the necessity to marry building design with the natural elements for cooling has diminished, leading to changes in the way buildings are constructed and experienced.

Modern buildings are engineered to be hermetically sealed from the outdoor environment, with features like non-opening windows, that make them dependent on air conditioning

Modern buildings, including the iconic tall glass office towers that are recognizable around the world, operate as greenhouses and would be unbearable without air conditioning. These structures are designed to be airtight, often with non-opening windows, separating the internal climate completely from the outdoors.

Emily Badger highlights that t ...

Air conditioning has become an essential part of modern life, particularly in hotter climates. Despite the comfort it provides, this technology has significant environmental and energy-related implications that are increasingly concerning.

The huge energy demands of air conditioning and its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions

Buildings account for around 30% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, much of which is due to the energy required to power air conditioning systems

In the United States, buildings contribute to approximately 30% of greenhouse gas emissions. A substantial portion of this is attributable to the energy needed for heating and cooling, especially from systems like air conditioning that require significant electricity, often produced from the burning of fossil fuels.

The design of many modern buildings, optimized for air conditioning, has led to high energy consumption that is unsustainable

Modern buildings are often designed with air conditioning in mind, resulting in structures that are sealed from the outdoor environment, maximizing the efficiency of climate control systems. However, this detachment from the natural environment leads to a cycle of high energy consumption that is not sustainable in the long run, both from an environmental and an energetic perspective.

The vulnerability created by over-reliance on air conditioning

When air conditioning fails, often during extreme heat events, it can put millions of people at risk, especially in regions that have become heavily populated due to the presence of air conditioning

The heavy reliance on air conditioning creates a vulnerability during extreme weather events. When these systems fail, particularly during periods of intense heat, millions are put at risk. This risk is exacerbated in densely populated regions, where the availability of air conditioning has been a significant factor in their development and continued ...

Air conditioning has significantly shaped our societal expectations regarding comfort while also influencing social behavior and demographics.

How air conditioning has shaped our expectations and relationship to comfort

The presence of air conditioning has established a cultural norm of expecting a constant and perfectly controlled indoor temperature. This has led people to be less tolerant of natural temperature variations, creating a sense of entitlement to comfort. The ingrained need for a comfort level set between 68-72 degrees Fahrenheit, as Emily Badger notes, is a social construct developed over decades by the air conditioning industry, architects, builders, and culture at large.

Discussing air conditioning within the context of climate change highlights the need to adjust our relationship with indoor comfort. Behaviors such as delaying the use of air conditioning, turning it off at night, or being comfortable with warmer temperatures while sleeping are suggested changes. Nonetheless, these changes challenge deeply established norms, as the conversation acknowledges the difficulty of asking people to endure discomfort even for sustainability's benefits.

The prevalence of air conditioning and difficulties in sustainability

Air conditioning's pervasive reach across the country has framed modern life around the convenience it offers, bringing about the expectation and perceived entitlement to comfort. This expectation is now deeply rooted in culture and not confined to specific regions, presenting a broad challenge in encouraging sustainable habits regarding air conditioning use.

The social and behavioral changes brought about by air conditioning

Air cond ...