Air Con Trends In The United States
The United States continues to influence trends in various parts of British everyday
life as the saying goes: When America sneezes, Britain catches a cold. This is certainly true of air conditioning.
Whilst the British air conditioning market is not as developed as in the United States, for obvious reasons (mainly that of temperature), it is interesting to take a look at the United States market to see what trends are occurring there and to find out where our own air con market could be in a few years time (especially given global warming and a general rise in temperatures).
When John Steinbeck wrote his epic novel The Grapes of Wrath in 1938, he wanted to capture the exhausting, spirit draining, baking heat of dust bowl America, so that you could not read the book without needing to switch on a fan and guzzle bottle after bottle of cold water. Citizens all over the country identified with the book, agreeing that he captured the energy-sapping heat of America perfectly.
Although Steinbecks novel was published 14 years after the first air con system was actually developed and built in the United States (in 1925, the Rivoli Cinema in New York installed an air con system at an astronomical cost of $100,000 it paid for itself in three months), air con took a while to catch on across the rest of the country, reports the BBC.
Successive United States governments realised that to become a much more productive nation, air con would have to become commonplace particularly in the southern States and in Mexico where the almost tropical heat had depleted peoples vigour and drive for so long. The days of workers taking a siesta, rather than clocking in for their afternoon shift on the factory assembly line, became numbered, as more and more air conditioning companies set up. This created a fiercely competitive market that inevitably brought down the cost of installing air con in workplaces and in the home.
Now, citizens in some States can monitor and control their air con from their mobile phones (through Smartphone apps and the Web), and they are also saving energy by doing so. They can even turn their air con on a few minutes before arriving home, states CNN.
So seriously is air con taken, possible restraints on it (e.g. due to major power outages) are
reported quickly and widely in the United States media, via websites such as Reuters. And any
new and innovative developments in air con technologies are given considerable coverage the idea being that if a new technology can be brought to everyone across the country, people in every State can be smart about the way they use their air conditioners in residential, commercial, and industrial settings, and save energy by doing so.
Air con is also something that Americans expect to be provided with when abroad:
Recently, the United States Olympic Team made the news for reasons other than their sporting prowess when they expressed their shock at the standard of air con provision in their rooms at the London 2012 Olympic Village, reports the Standard.
And, incredibly:
The United States Military spends $20billion on air con annually in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the Daily Mail
While Americans are currently the world leaders in air con use; it is forecasted that they will not be for much longer not now that air con is increasingly being regarded as a must-have by the aspirational middle class in developing countries...
China is already sprinting forward and is expected to surpass the United States as the worlds
biggest user of electricity for air con by 2020. Growth in air con use in the Middle East in recent years has also been immense. And in India, currently about 40 per cent of all electricity consumption in the city of Mumbai is for air con it is regarded as a vital component in helping
young children study well and workers sleep, reports Grist.org.
Also in India, where the family of the bride is expected, as part of a dowry, to give the groom and his family money or other gifts at the time of the marriage, todays grooms are not only being given traditional gifts (clothes, jewellery and cattle), they are also often presented with a host of air-conditioners and other household appliances.
by: Steve Reeve
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