Long ago in the days before there were central heating and air conditioning systems, the way we heated and cooled our homes were way different.
For one, most people had either a hot water boiler, a gas furnace or electric furnace for their heating.
These were actually easier to maintain things than a central heating and air conditioning system unit in my opinion. Then for air conditioning most people had window air conditioners of all shapes and sizes. There were the larger ones to take care of cooling an entire living room area or downstairs of a house. Then there were the medium to small sized ones that would take care of the air conditioning for a bedroom. Some folks did not have the luxury of affording window air conditioning system units in those days, so they were stuck with exhaust and direct blow window fans. Which in the hotter areas of the world or when there was a heat wave was not a good thing and did not much of anything other than blow the heat around worse! I am actually thankful that things have changed today when it comes to air conditioning. And that old window air conditioning units are dirt cheap and central air conditioning systems can be affordable to average people. Not to mention there are portable space heaters now that can heat rooms in minutes along with portable air conditioning systems that can do the same but with cooling. Heating and air conditioning technology is a good thing.