Interesting Heating and Cooling Facts From the White House
Being the President of the United States isn’t an easy job. In order to perform the tasks, they have to be comfortable, right? On a hot summer day in Washington, D.C., temperatures can skyrocket. Just like everybody else, he likes to work in a controlled environment where they can keep tabs on the temperature.
The white house didn’t have air conditioning installed until 1929 when Herbert Hoover was in office. He requested that a system be installed because, at that time, the outdoor temperature was what cooled down the White House. With the windows opened and the breeze blowing through, it made the chandelier very noisy. Not to mention, hot air won’t cool down a hot building.
After that, each president had their own preferences as to how cool or warm the White House was. Teddy Roosevelt wasn’t a fan of the air conditioning and used a fan, and Barak Obama kept the Oval Office at a tropical climate like Hawaii’s where he grew up.
Outdoor Work Space & Sleeping
When William Taft was in office, he attempted to install an air conditioning system in the West Wing in 1909. He used electric fans that blew over bins of ice in the attic to cool the air. The cool air was then sent through the ducts of the heating system. Unfortunately, this didn’t’ work well in his favor, so he built a sleeping porch and a screen room on the roof of the White House so he could sleep in it on cool summer nights.
On the other hand, Woodrow Wilson didn’t even try to use Taft’s failed system. Instead, Wilson moved his office into a tent on the Southwest corner at the end of the Rose Garden. It had a desk, chairs, a telephone, and more. Wilson even continued to meet with representatives, officials, senators, and others outside in his tent.
Richard Nixon Liked It Cold!
Some people just like to be really, really cold during the summer. Richard Nixon was one of these people. Before Nixon, Truman had part of the White House renovated to include central air conditioning, which meant the air conditioning would work throughout the entire White House off of one unit.
Then when Lyndon Johnson got into office, he reportedly kept it so cool that he slept under an electric blanket during the summer. When it came time for Nixon to be in the office, he kept it so cold in the White House that he lit the fireplace on the second-floor hideaway office in the summertime.
Where’s All The Heat?
The White House is a massive place, so how was it all heated? It wasn’t! At first, the only rooms that had heat were the staterooms and transverse hall. In 1849, gravity hot air heating systems were installed, and heat was finally brought to all of the rooms. As the White House has been renovated from time to time, the HVAC system has also been upgraded.
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