Page 16 - Climate Control News Oct-Nov 2020

HVACR Leadership Awards
The third finalist is Inter-Marine general man- ager, Rosario Di Bartolo, who provides HVACR ser- vices for the shipping industry. Inter-Marine has been at the forefront of transitional refrigerant ret- rofitting since the original Montreal Protocol.
CCN’s remaining finalist for this category is Duc- tus managing director, Jim Malek, who has been hard at work ensuring that the standards for duct requirements in Australia are the best in the world.
HVACR LEADER OF THE YEAR
This category recognises overall excellence in leadership and is for a professional with a well- established HVACR career.
Three finalists have been selected including AFA Air director, Reuben Kelley, who is all about exceeding expectations and going above and be- yond for our industry.
Another finalist is Hussmann general manager, Vinney Kumar, who actively supports HVACR in roles such as chair of the Australian Refrigeration Council.
CCN’s third finalist, System Air managing di- rector, Greg Dalton, began his career winning the apprentice of the year award. Today he has a Mas- ters of Business Administration and is leading a company with more than 50 staff.
MALE RISING STAR
Once again ABB has sponsored this dual award to
find a male and a female rising star. Three finalists are competing for the Male Rising Star Award includ- ing Alex Sarry, refrigeration supervi- sor at SBS Electrical and Ian Decker, special projects manager at Alpine Refrigeration. The third finalist is Hirotec project manager, Joshua
Eftimovski.
FEMALE RISING STAR
This award recognises the future champions of our industry who have risen quickly through the ranks. This year’s finalists include Talara Welling, an apprentice tech- nician at Northern Air in Lismore, New South Wales.
CCN’s second finalist is Humi-
scope sales engineer, Sabah Masou-
di, who has the ability to combine
technical skills with an eye for sales and market- ing – a fierce combination. The third finalist is Abbey McGeachin, a refrigeration and air condi- tioning technician from D&T Refrigeration.
INNOVATOR OF THE YEAR
Richard Agar-Wilson is the general manager and senior engineer for Pacific Ventilation.
His out of the box approach to decision making and unique style has made him a finalist for the Innovator of the Year Award.
He is competing against two more finalists in- cluding the director of the Australian Passive House Association and managing director of the Bridgeford Group, Nicholas Tassogiammakis and Eurofast director, James Fooks. ✺
Making a risky proposition safe
DISRUPTIVE CHANGE IS underway in the HVACR industry as end users transition to new refrigerants with a lower Global Warming Poten- tial (GWP).
This means working with flammable refriger- ants and being aware of the risks associated with this new low GWP landscape including applica- tion limits and safety requirements.
For example, do you know if the refrigerant mix in your recovery cylinders is flammable or not? According to Refrigerant Reclaim Australia (RRA) general manager, Kylie Farrelley, the organisation is already seeing higher concentrations of flam- mable refrigerants returned for destruction.
Farrelley said careful consideration needs to be given to the increased risk posed by flammable refrigerants through- out the entire supply chain, including re- covery at end of life.
“We, as an industry, need to re-think the way used and unwanted refrigerant is han- dled, stored, and transported to ensure a safe transition to low GWP refrigerants,” she said.
“You may be surprised to learn how eas- ily traditional non-flammable refrigerants can become potentially flammable mix-
tures when mixing refrigerants at end of life.” This is just one of the issues to be covered by Farrelley at CCN Live 2020 where she will be joined by Refrigerant Australia executive director, Greg Picker, and the managing director of Weir
Legal and Consulting Pty Ltd, Bronwyn Weir. Drawing on her regulatory expertise, Weir will present the current legislative landscape for flam- mable refrigerants in Australia covering every
state and territory in the country.
It will be followed by a panel discussion about
the need to harmonize national legislation and safety rules on the use of flammable refrigerants. Panellists will also debate the need for manda-
tory training at the free virtual event.
For end users this transition to low GWP re- frigerants may involve undertaking a risk as- sessment and checking all types of leakage from
current HVACR systems.
Users need to check the location of their
equipment, rate of gas leakage, the position of an ignition source, and the list goes on.
Industry groups such as the Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) have undertaken leak and ignition testing of low- GWP refrigerants in air conditioning equip- ment under whole room scale conditions, as well as tests to determine refrigerant leak char- acteristics in real-life applications. ✺
To register for this free, virtual event – CCN Live: Game Changers – visit: https://www.eventbrite. com.au/e/ccn-lve-hvacr-leadership-awards-tick- ets-124492126301
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