AC Meets AI: HVAC Has Moved Beyond Remote Control

The first air conditioner as consumers now know it was invented in 1902 by a man with a familiar last name — Willis Carrier — though the concept of artificially cooling indoor spaces dates back at least to the 18th century.

The first recorded use of an “air conditioner” in modern times took place in 1758, when Benjamin Franklin and John Hadley used a fan to circulate air over a wet sponge and thus cool the air around them.

Remote controls for heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems were not introduced until roughly 1980, though the concept of remote control AC dates back to 1898 and Nikola Tesla.

HVAC has evolved well past remote control into the realm of artificial intelligence.

“Remote control is basically table stakes — adjusting your thermostat from your phone at work or on the road isn’t impressive anymore; it’s expected,” said Jake Winchell, director of sales and marketing at Paschal Air, Plumbing & Electric, which has locations across Arkansas.

Winchell said the real industry shift related to new technology is that from remote control to intelligence. Almost every aspect of daily life is now impacted by AI.

“Take Trane’s communicating systems — the components actually talk to each other to optimize performance, and the equipment runs self-diagnostics on itself,” Winchell said. “The system even tells you when it’s time to change a filter or schedule maintenance instead of waiting for you to guess.

“Here’s the part homeowners don’t realize: if you opt into Trane Diagnostics, the system lets us monitor its health remotely — much like a security company monitors your home — so we can catch a small problem while it’s still small, sometimes even solve it remotely before it ever becomes a breakdown.”

Other recent advancements in residential HVAC include those applied to variable refrigerant flow, or VRF, and minisplit systems, said Jay Nash at Conway-based Freyaldenhoven Heating and Cooling Mechanical.

“They’re much more efficient than they used to be and give you better control over individual areas of a home or building,” he said. “There are also a lot of new smart controls and other technology that make it easier to operate and monitor your system.”

One evolutionary step that most homeowners may not be aware of, Winchell noted, is found inside the equipment itself. As of January 2025, the industry stopped making the R-410A systems that had cooled homes from Bangor to Beaverton for the past quarter-century and moved to a new class of low-emission refrigerants — R-454B and R-32.

“The new equipment runs roughly 10 to 15 percent more efficiently and cuts the climate impact by about 65 percent,” Winchell said. “What people really don’t know is that these refrigerants are mildly flammable, so the new systems now ship with built-in leak-detection sensors baked right into the unit. Your air conditioner is quietly monitoring itself in a way it never used to.”

Winchell added that another example of advanced tech in the industry, one that is “flying under the radar,” is cold-climate heat pumps.

“The old knock was, ‘Heat pumps don’t work when it’s freezing,’” he said. “That’s simply not true anymore; today’s heat pumps stay efficient and keep a home comfortable even in freezing weather. For a lot of our customers across the Ozarks and Arkansas as a whole, that changes the whole conversation about what a smart heating system looks like.”

Indeed, automation is the expectation these days for residential systems.

“Most newer systems can be paired with a smart thermostat that allows you to control your heating and air from your phone,” Nash said. “You can adjust the temperature when you’re away from home, set schedules and even monitor how the system is running. It’s become pretty common and is something a lot of homeowners expect now.”

Efficiency and conservation are where the biggest advancements have been made, he added.

“Today’s equipment is designed to use a lot less energy while still keeping the home comfortable,” he said. “Variable-speed and variable-drive systems have also become much more common. Instead of a unit simply turning on and running at full capacity every time, it can adjust based on how much heating or cooling is actually needed. That saves energy and also helps keep the temperature in the home more consistent.”

Energy efficiency standards have become more strict over the past couple of decades, and the industry adapted by merging efficiency with convenience to create smart systems.

“On the equipment side, we went from single-speed boxes that ran full blast or off to variable-speed, inverter-driven systems that sip energy and hold your home within a degree of where you want it,” Winchell said. “Efficiency standards got stricter, refrigerants got cleaner, and the systems got smart. A unit installed today is a fundamentally different machine than one from 2006.”

Winchell acknowledged that prices have risen as a result, of course, a natural response to outside factors impacting the industry such as tougher efficiency mandates, new refrigerant rules and rising costs across the supply chain.

“That part’s genuinely out of any contractor’s hands,” he said. “What is in our hands is what we do about it — and because of Paschal’s size and buying power, we can typically get better equipment pricing than a smaller shop and pass that along without cutting a single corner on the quality of the install or the support you get long after we’ve packed up the truck — cheaper where we can be, never cheap where it counts.”

Winchell said the “bigger evolution,” which has gone mostly unnoticed by consumers, is how HVAC service actually works.

“Twenty years ago, you called somebody, you had no idea what it should cost, and you crossed your fingers,” he said. “Today, the good companies lead with transparency — upfront pricing, clear options and financing so a surprise breakdown isn’t a financial crisis and no pressure.

“At Paschal, we’ve been at this since 1968, and the thing we’re proudest of isn’t a gadget; it’s that we’ll give a homeowner a free second opinion on someone else’s quote with no strings attached. The technology got smarter, but the trust model is what actually changed the customer’s life.”

As with most any mechanical device, maintenance is key. With heating and air units, it is essential.

“Regular maintenance is one of the most important things a homeowner can do,” Nash said. “Filters need to be changed regularly, and the system should be properly cleaned and serviced two or three times a year. It needs to happen regularly.”

Maintenance is no longer just something that is nice to have, Winchell said, calling system maintenance “the cheapest insurance you’ll ever buy.”

“A well-maintained system routinely lasts five to 10 years longer than a neglected one, and it runs cheaper every month in between,” he said. “Skipping tune-ups to save a little now is one of the most expensive decisions a homeowner can make.”

Winchell said he also advised homeowners that the “[do-it-yourself] era is over” on the refrigerant side. Given the industry’s new A2L refrigerants, it is now illegal for anyone other than a certified technician to handle them, he said, so no more “topping off” one’s own system.

“It’s against the law and genuinely unsafe,” he said.

Winchell also noted a simple trick that many homeowners still skip — changing the air filters to keep the air flow clean.

“Clean filters, proper refrigerant levels and steady airflow are what keep the whole system from straining,” he said. “That’s most of the game. The reason we build tune-ups right into our memberships is simple: the homeowners who stay ahead of the small stuff almost never call us for the expensive stuff.”

SEE THE FEATURE BELOW AND IN OUR SEPTEMBER 2026 ISSUE OF AY MAGAZINE