HVACR stands for Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration, the defining description of the Centre's vision for collecting, education and research.

The HVACR Heritage Centre Canada (HHCC) is a distributed/virtual heritage organization with no main 'museum' building. Instead, it holds collections at various centres across the country and mounts exhibits from coast to coast. The Centre is operated primarily by volunteers.

The Centre's collections consist of genuine artefacts (refrigerators, air conditioners, motors, pumps, compressors, etc.) and of archival documents that illustrate the history of the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration technologies. The archives contain manuals, technical specifications, trade journals, and marketing literature.

The founding collection was a donation of artefacts and archival documents from the T. H. Oliver Collection, assembled in southern Ontario during the first half of the twentieth century.

The common theme is control of the internal environment, the environment in the homes and buildings in which we live and work. There is also a common theme in some of the technologies, such as fans, flow controls, fans, motors, pumps, and compressors that are used in the various HVACR areas.

The founding collection had its greatest strength from about 1920 to 1960, a period of explosive growth in HVACR technologies. New additions, however, continue to expand the historical range.

Yes, the Centre's collections are being selectively extended to fill important gaps.

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The collections are the basis of all of the Centre's exhibition, education, research, publication and informational activities.

Professionals working in the HVACR field include technologists, managers, sales and marketing specialists in the retail sector, as well as chemists, physicists and engineers working the manufacturing sector.

There are many training opportunities available. The best place to start looking is on the websites of two of our partner organizations, the Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Institute of Canada, or the JTAC / UA Training Centre.

For the answer to this question, please visit our special, online exhibit, entitled Chilling Out.

The largest artefact is the Frigidaire Nine and One Half Cubic Foot, Double door, Cabinet Refrigerator, produced for commercial use.

The smallest artefact is a short circuiting ring [necklace], constructed of copper, stamped and formed, segments, hand strung on fine wire, approximately 40 to the inch, and used in a Wagner electric motor [Accession # HHCC.2006.203]

The principal of operation of an air conditioner is very similar to that of a refrigerator. For how a refrigerator works, please visit our special, online exhibit, entitled Chilling Out.

The best single place to look is the Site Map.

Please click here to visit the Contact Us.

HHCC stands for the HVACR Heritage Centre Canada.

The logo has been derived from a handsome brass artefact, an early, Kelvinator refrigerant flow control valve for household refrigerators (Accession # HHCC.2006.041).

A curator is a heritage professional who has primary responsibility for care of the heritage collections and for carrying out research on those collections to better understand their significance.