Air Conditioning as Preservation

Climate control - as far as humidity, as well as temperature - is one of the main reasons for upgrading to a central air and heating system. A unit attached to a thermostat allows for a comfortable home, with a maintained constant temperature and humidity level. In the summer, it's the humidity that makes life unbearable, so being able to take the moisture out of the air is very helpful in an air conditioning system. Air units may also be used to maintain more specific temperatures and humidity levels for a variety of things. For example, light and moisture are the enemies of old paper products (books (first edition copies - Gutenberg Bible), manuscripts (Declaration of Independence), and photos (Spanish American War correspondent documentation photos)...etc.) So a library like the Huntington library close to us needs to work with their air and heating to provide the optimum temperature. At the Huntington, some collections are also kept in the dark. (More information than you ever wanted to know? probably...) So, how does this tie in with my blog post? Well, on the Carrier website, they have a list of places that required special heating or cooling needs - and I found it interesting the differences and spectrum between the examples. They range from cooling at the Alexandria Library in Egypt to National Geographic needing to encase the 'ice maiden.' The Carrier project showcase tells all about these and many other examples: http://www.corp.carrier.com/www/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=54c87afdef677010VgnVCM100000cb890b80RCRD Not that most of us will ever need that much cooling or heating capacity, but it is interesting to see how the technology is changing to meet new needs. Hopefully as research improves, some of these technologies will be applied to our houses too.