Credential Automotive Newsletter - 31st September 2006

Pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Car Air Conditioning...Are you
disposing of your bottles legally?

History of Air conditioning

In 1820, British Scientist and inventor Michael Faraday discovered that compressing and liquefying ammonia could chill air when the liquefied ammonia was allowed to evaporate.

In 1842, Florida physician Dr John Gorrie used compressor technology to create ice, which he used to cool air for his patients in his hospital in Apalachicola, Florida. He hoped eventually to use his ice-making machine to regulate the temperature of buildings. He even envisioned centralized air conditioning that could cool entire cities. Though his prototype leaked and performed irregularly, Gorrie was granted a patent in 1851 for his ice-making machine. His hopes for its success vanished soon afterwards when his chief financial backer died. Gorrie did not get the money he needed to develop the machine. According to his biographer Vivian M Sherlock, he blamed the "Ice King," Fredric Tudor, for his failure, suspecting that Tudor has launched a smear campaign against his invention. Dr Gorrie died impoverished in 1855 and the idea of air conditioning faded away for 50 years.

Early commercial applications of air conditioning were manufactured to cool air for industrial processing rather than personal comfort. In 1902 the first modern electrical air conditioning was invented by Willis Haviland Carrier. Designed to improve manufacturing process control in a printing plant, his invention controlled not only temperature but also humidity. The low heat and humidity were to help maintain consistent paper dimensions and ink alignment. Later Carrier's technology was applied to increase productivity in the workplace, and The Carrier Air conditioning company of America was formed to meet rising demand. Over time air conditioning came to be used to improve comfort in homes and Automobiles. Residential sales expanded dramatically in the 1950s.

In 1906 , Stuart W Cramer of Charlotte, North Carolina USA, was exploring ways to add moisture to the air in his textile mill. Cramer coined the term "air conditioning," using it in a patent claim he filed that year as an analogue to "water conditioning", then a well-known process for making textiles easier to process. He combined moisture with ventilation to "condition" and change the air in the factories, controlling the humidity so necessary in textile plants. Willis Carrier adopted the term and incorporated it into the name of his company.

The first air conditioners and refrigerators employed toxic gases like ammonia and metyl chloride, which could result in fatal accidents when they leaked. Thomas Midgley Jr created the first chlorofluorocarbon gas, Freon, in 1928. The refrigerant was much safer for humans but was later found to be harmful to the atmosphere's ozone layer. "Freon" is a trade name of Dupont for any CFC HCFC, or HFC refrigerant, the name of each including a number indicating molecular composition (R-11, R-12, R-22, R-134). The blend most used in direct-expansion comfort cooling is an HCFC known as R-22. It is to be phased out for use in new equipment by 2010 and completely discontinued by 2020. R-11 and R-12 are no longer manufactured in the US, the only source for purchase being the cleaned and purified gas recovered from other air conditioner systems. Several ozone-friendly refrigerants have been developed as alternatives, including R-410A, known by the brand name "Puron".

Latest air conditioners usually have air sterilization effects, such as the recent air conditioners that have germicidal and neutralization benefits.

(Source Wikipidia)

Nearly all modern cars use R134a, a refrigerant which is Ozone friendly. R134a can affect global warming if released into the atmosphere, which is why a safe handling licence is required to use this refrigerant and disposal of any containers should be carried out carefully and refrigerants are classed as Hazardous waste in the European Waste Catalogue under 16.02.11*.