For many people all over the globe air conditioning is an essential part of their daily lives. Air conditioning makes peoples lives more bearable in countries that have an extremely warm climate. But air conditioners are not only about cooling the air that surrounds us even though that is where they have found their global popularity. Essentially air conditioning units process air in a way to control room temperature by a means of heating as well as cooling air and then ventilating it into the room.

Air conditioning found its popularity in the early 1900's in America where it was used by industrialists to keep the temperature of the work place cooler so that the workforce would be more productive in their work, from their it was realized that air conditioning had a commercial use to cool offices and homes all over the country. The very first building where air conditioning units were installed was the New York Stock Exchange; this was the height of luxury for the brokers and made the working day much more tolerable. It was claimed in the early days that the air conditioning of the New York Stock Exchange increased productivity so much that it gave the economy an extra kick start just when it needed it most.

The popularity of the air conditioning plant grew swiftly after the success story from America with those people that could afford to spend money on obtaining a unit who lived in hot countries spending a vast amount of obtain a unit. For many people the benefit was not only the fact that the air conditioning unit cooled the air but that it also took the humidity out the air also. For people living in extremely humid climate air conditioning was like a god send as for the first time their living quarters were pleasant.

Air conditioning units are not good for the environment, not only because of the electricity that is used by them but because of the gas that is used as the refrigerant, Freon. The worldwide growth in the use of air conditioning units is thought to be a major factor in the thinning of the ozone layer which is helping to contribute to global warming, although directly safe to humans Freon could turn out to be the worst thing that ever happened to human kind. Although modern air conditioning units are bad for the environment we should be grateful that we have moved on from the early versions that were made, these needed a mixture of ammonia and methyl chloride to help to produce the conditioned air. Both substances are very harmful to humans.

It is estimated that air conditioning is now so wide spread that by the year 2015 every human being on the planet will have been in contact with an air conditioning unit of one kind or another, whether it is in a work place, home or even in a car. This could spell an environmental nightmare for the planet but there is a little ray of hope in that by the year 2010 Freon is no longer allowed to be used in the manufacture of air conditioning units, as good as this is there will still be many millions of old air conditioning units in circulation for many years to come.

It's ironic really to think that global warming is produced in part by an invention that was created to keep up cool.