AIR CONDITIONING A year of change
Tim Boxall, technical sales support manager for Gree UK explains why 2018 is a turning point for the industry.
L
ooking back on 2018 from the vantage point of a couple of years in the future, I believe we will see that we are currently in the midst of two infl uences that are to have a signifi cant impact on the industry as a whole: the price of R410A and climate change. Until now, the march of VRF has been inexorable, starting with large buildings and chunky outdoor units in the ‘80s to highly compact equipment that can be used in luxury apartments. It seemed unstoppable, and then came the R410A price hikes.
Most manufacturers have made a massive commitment to the use of R410A in their equipment, particularly VRF. Now, because it is being phased out, with no real obvious, instant, substitute, while regulations are getting stricter, refrigerant manufacturers are not investing in its production.
This has caused a drop-in supply without a corresponding fall in demand. Simple economics means that, in these circumstances, the price will rise.
In this case, the price has not just risen, but rocketed. Something that was £9 per kilo just a few years ago is now costing 10 times that amount.
So volatile is the R410A price at the moment that it can add signifi cant amounts to the cost of a project between tendering and completion. A lot of installers have been caught out by this. For this reason, many installers are pricing VRF jobs excluding refrigerant, so they can add on the real cost at the end.
This is particularly aff ecting VRF because it typically uses one large capacity central outdoor unit, or several sited in the same place, and then relatively long pipe-runs around the building to
34 September 2018
multiple indoor units. This means there is always a large amount of refrigerant required to fi ll those pipes.
Therefore, projects that would previously have automatically have gone to VRF are now going to splits or multi-splits, as these have signifi cantly shorter pipe-runs and thus use less refrigerant. There are also a number of recently launched splits that use lower cost but ‘mildly fl ammable’ R32. Because of its fl ammability, this cannot be used in VRF systems. This is undoubtedly aff ecting VRF sales. The Gree response, like some other manufacturers, is to launch a range of small R32 splits which will be followed by larger units in the near future. However, we are urging Gree in China to use its considerable research capabilities to solve the problem.
Some manufacturers have gone down the route of designing hybrid VRF systems that use only small amounts of R32, while using water as a secondary refrigerant through most of the pipework. While safer, water is obviously less effi cient than a purpose-made refrigerant and will take longer to switch from cooling to heating and vice versa.
The second potentially game changing issue at the moment is climate change. While there is still much debate about this, the sensible consensus is that it is a real phenomenon and we will get more and more heatwaves, such as that of this summer’s, and wet winters. Anyone in the industry knows that during prolonged heat waves, the phones never stop ringing, either with businesses who need air conditioning by the end of the day to keep their workers and customers cool, or with installers trying to source extra equipment. This year
we have even had calls from members of the public trying to source replacement parts for old portables. The diff erence 2018 has brought is that the severity of the heatwave and the realisation that these spells will be recurring, has led to calls for there to be a statutory maximum working temperature, in addition to the existing minimum temperature. If this does come about, it will obviously be a huge boost for the industry, with employers virtually obliged to install air conditioning.
In addition, recurring heatwaves, with weeks of uncomfortable hot nights, may also fi nally see the UK domestic air conditioning market take off . People will be spending a day in an air conditioned offi ce, driving an air conditioned car, drinking in an air conditioned pub and then coming home and sweating in a non-air conditioned bedroom. This will become less and less acceptable and the public will start thinking about cooling in the same way that they currently consider heating.
If the public is starting to think about cooling in this way, then the industry has to as well, marketing the products in the same way as boiler people market heating. In the early autumn, we are bombarded by ads telling us that the cold weather is coming and our boilers could fail when we switch them on, and urging us to get them replaced or serviced now or everyone will be too busy to deal with them when the winter hits.
With the help of global warming, maybe spring will see the air conditioning industry pushing cooling in the same way.
Whatever happens, I believe 2018 will be seen as a turning point for the industry.
www.acr-news.com
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