In 1955, William J. Levitt, the developer of Levittown, the largest and perhaps the first community of suburban tract homes, predicted that air conditioning would eventually be a basic feature of new home development, even though only about 430,000 homes had central air conditioning at the time.
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"Harry, what is this?" |
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By 1965, more than three million single-family homes were air conditioned.
By 1975, 36 percent of all homes being built were air conditioned.
By 1985, 30 years after Levitt made his prediction, 70 percent of new homes included air conditioning when built. In the American South, the figure was nearer 90 percent and some sociologists have gone so far as to credit air conditioning with making possible the dramatic growth of America's "Sun Belt."
The history of Carrier and the history of air conditioning are so tightly intertwined it's difficult to separate one from the other. The industry's list of air conditioning firsts reads like a Carrier chronology. The 28,000 men and women of Carrier add to industry history each day in 145 countries around the world.
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