Museums Dedicated Solely to HVACR

John Gorrie Museum
The John Gorrie State Museum is a Florida State Park located in Apalachicola, a block off U.S. 98. It commemorates the man who was a pioneer in developing air conditioning and refrigeration. He received the first U.S. Patent for mechanical refrigeration in 1851.

Refrigeration Research Museum

Antique Wood Stove Collections and Museums
A general website with information about several private museums.
Antique wood stoves are not just collectibles. Many are still in operation and we can still learn a lot about efficiency and emissions from some of these old designs. Aside from the impressive artistry, wood stoves from the beginning of the 1900s have incredibly varied technologies and features. As other heating methods became more popular in the 1960s and 1970s, wood stove technology regressed to only a few basic model styles. There are a number of outstanding antique collections of wood stoves in America, most of which also restore and/or sell stoves. Several of the six listed below have web presences where you can see their collections. All appear to welcome visits by the public and wood stove enthusiasts.

HVACR Heritage Centre
The HVACR Heritage Centre Canada is founded on the philosophy of the virtual, distributed museum, operated primarily through the efforts and contributions of volunteers.

This means that:

1. We are a new kind of heritage organization
2. Our focus is on technology and culture
3. our commitment is to education
4. our mandate is for sharing
5. we are volunteer driven
6. we are professionally driven
7. we serve the world via the internet

The four pillars of today's comfort, convenience and good health:

• automated heating
• ventilation
• air conditioning and
• refrigeration technologies

are based in the 20th Century. It was the end of manual drudgery for Canadians with their need for ice to keep foods fresh, and wood stoves and fireplaces to stay warm.

The HVACR Industry brought everyone out of 19th Century pioneer days into the modern world of mechanical cooling or refrigeration, automated coal, electric, oil and gas heating systems, and air conditioning-ventilation appliances. That created a whole new industry and great employment opportunities year round for Canadians - for your grandparents, parents, and you, and changed everyone's lifestyles.
The stories behind these changes, from which you benefit today, are told throughout this Museum and Learning Centre website.

Illumination & Heating Appliances Museum
This is a small private museum owned by Mr. Mehmet Yaldiz. The museum is located in an old mansion in the Sultanahmet neighborhood of Eminonu district, near the Blue Mosque. There is a large collection of antique and historic lighting and heating appliances such as oil and stone lamps, gas lamps, cooking stoves, candle sticks, wood and coal stoves, braziers and incense burners, chandeliers, and other related materials from Roman, Byzantine,Seljuk andOttoman periods. 

Heating museum, Vienna, Austria
Brennpunkt° - the hottest museum in town

"Brennpunkt" is the German term for "focus" - the point at which rays from different directions meet. The same goes for our museum: it is a place of unusual content and radiant power.

Brennpunkt is home to unique objects preserved nowhere but here: old boiler plants and refrigerators, catering kitchen facilities and steam heating for schools, hospitals and nurseries. Also on display are ornate stoves and quaint everyday gadgets, as well as two classrooms heated by single stoves. The historical stoves and heating installations can be viewed from various perspectives, offering insight into the history of heating and day-to-day life in the city.

Brennpunkt° presents heating in the context of social and cultural changes. The itinerary takes you from the city and its facilities across the private aspects of peoples' lives, from heating to cooking, bathing and cleaning.

Hook up with our interactive play stations to learn more about heat energy - about the pains of energy generation and the planning of energy-efficient homes. To round off your trip catch a glimpse of the future of energy supply.

SAXON Energy Museum
Energiefabrik Knappenrode in Sachsen, Germany. (Saxon Energy Museum) This is an excellent museum of stoves with a brilliant illustrated catalog.

Finnish Museum of Refrigeration
The Finnish Museum of Refrigeration was founded in Antverkka, at small town of Ylöjärvi 23.2.1986. In the beginning the museum was housed at an attic of old cowshed. The new part of the museum was built 1992. It made possible to exhibit larger items.

For a long time the museum was owned by its founder, Dr. In Technology h.c. Paavo V. Suominen. He donated the museum with all its contents to the Foundation of Finnish Museum of Refrigeration in the year 2004.

The purpose of the museum is to serve, not only the professionals and the business sector of the industry of refrigeration, but all people interested in the subject on man made cold. It is the only museum of its kind in Finland.

FRIGOTHEUM, Maintal, Germany
This museum, located near Frankfurt, is operated by the Historische Kälte- und Klimatechnik e.V. (German Society for the History of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning)

This museum has displays of equipment as well as a library containing literature such as industry magazines and journals and manufacturers’ catalogs.

Museum website  http://www.vhkk.org/exponate/index.php
Society website  http://www.vhkk.org/main/index.php