History and Development of Heat Pumps
The development of the heat pumps can be traced back to the mid 1800’s. In 1748 William Cullen demonstrated artificial refrigeration, 1834 Jacob Perkins built a practical refrigerator with diethyl ether, in 1852 Lord Kelvin describes the theory underlying the heat pump, and in 1857 Peter Ritter Von Rittinger developed and built the first heat pump. It wasn’t until 1915 in the United States, an engineer, Willis “Bill’ H. Carrier began to introduce sophisticated mechanical climate control that could be used in industry. He also designed and crafted installation of central heating and cooling for residential use.
Bill Carrier and his engineers discovered that water was a superior source for heat transfer. In the 1950’s experiments to transfer heat from water using heat pump technology became very practical and economical. This technology dominated the market, however there were serious maintenance problems due to the built up of water mineral deposits in the system.
During this same period (early 50’s), Chrysler Airtemp had developed an air conditioning system using Freon. Freon is a trademark name of DuPont for any Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), Hydrogenated CFC (HCFC, or Hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerant. This type heat pump eliminated the water towers and all of the maintenance that went with them. This same technology is still used in conventional air conditioners, however the use of ether was developed for use with heat pump.
By 1960 Air Source Heat Pumps began to be developed and marketed mainly in package units. Following close behind the development of the split system became a very practical heating and cooling system being marketed world wide.
As a footnote of interest, Chrysler Airtemp enabled the Chrysler Automobile Company to be one of the first to provide America with air conditioned automobiles on a large scale. The Packard Motor Car Company was the first to build air conditioners into its cars, beginning in 1939.
Category: Uncategorized
