1931: Advances in Home Heating and Cooling
The short-lived Hot-Kold was an early version of today’s residential HVAC systems
JOINT PROJECT: The Hot-Kold, as seen in this clipping from a 1931 issue of Electric Refrigeration News, was a heating and cooling system for small homes. It was made by Frigidaire Corp. and the General Iron Works Co.
More than 90 years ago, a furnace company and a refrigeration company got together to make a heating and cooling system for single-family homes.
The Hot-Kold was the product of a partnership between the General Iron Works Co. of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Frigidaire Corp. of Dayton, Ohio. Frigidaire, whose name was for years synonymous with household refrigerators, was at the time owned by General Motors Corp.
The Hot-Kold, according to an article in the July 29, 1931, issue of Electric Refrigeration News (precursor to The ACHR NEWS), was intended for small homes. It included a gas-fueled, forced-air furnace, a Frigidaire evaporator, a Frigidaire compressor, ductwork, and a fan that could push air at 600 cfm.
The story announcing the arrival of the Hot-Kold said the heating components were to be installed by General Iron Works distributors, and the cooling unit installed by Frigidaire distributors and dealers.
“The Hot-Kold plant is designed for homes of six or eight rooms. The heating unit is entirely automatic in operation, and the cooling unit can be either automatically or manually controlled,” the article said.
In an early example of zoning, the Hot-Kold’s cooling system was “so designed that the cooling can be confined to one or two rooms,” the article said. “This is accomplished by the installation of return air ducts in the rooms to be cooled.”
Frigidaire engineers suggested the system be set to cool the living room during the day and one or two bedrooms at night.
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“In this manner considerable reduction in both temperature and humidity is possible,” the article said. “If the cooled air is turned into all rooms of the home, the reduction of both temperature and humidity will be considerably less.”
The Hot-Kold reportedly cost between $1,500 and $2,500 installed. That’s between about $32,100 and $53,500 today.
Frigidaire, which went on to make other household appliances, was sold by GM in 1979 to White Consolidated Industries; the brand is now owned by Electrolux. General Iron Works went into receivership in 1932, and Edwards Manufacturing Co., also in Cincinnati, bought part of the company and continued to market the Hot-Kold for a while, according to Cincinnati Enquirer stories and advertising from the period.
But with the Great Depression in its depths, and the median household income in the U.S. at around $1,500 in 1931, the Hot-Kold wasn’t a big seller and was abandoned after a few years.
Yet the Hot-Kold, developed in an era when coal-fired boilers and furnaces were the dominant source of home heating, and residential central air-conditioning was all but nonexistent, was a forerunner of the unitary residential HVAC systems that are so common today.
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