Page 14 - Climate Control News December 2018
P. 14

In Focus
LEFT:
There were approximately 22,600 chillers operating in Australia in 2016.
BELOW: Co-author
of the report and Thinkwell managing director, Michael McCann.
Cold, hard truth about climate control
IN THIS SPECIAL REPORT CCN PROVIDES A BREAKDOWN OF THE COLD HARD FACTS 3 REPORT WHICH SHOWS AN INDUSTRY IMPACTING ALL AREAS OF MODERN LIFE.
THE COLD HARD truth is that the refrigerated cold food chain (RCFC) is an essential service with perishable food production in 2016 worth an estimated $38 billion.
Approximately $18.8 billion was earned from export of perishable foods in 2016.
The refrigerated cold food chain has more than 1.6 million installations and pieces of equipment that used an estimated 35% (1,250 tonnes) of all HCFCs and HFCs used in 2016 to charge new equipment and replace leaked refrig- erant. This is a 19% increase on the 614 tonnes reported in 2012.
The refrigerant bank grew by 17 per cent from 2012 to 2016. The big three were 410a, 404a and 134a, followed by R22, which has now dropped below 10,000 tonnes. This will continue to fall as existing equipment reaches end of life and no more enters the bank.
The total refrigerant bank in Australia in 2016 is estimated at approximately 51,000 tonnes of HCFCs and HFCs (CHF2, 43,500 tonnes). This is an increase of nearly 15% as compared to the
bank in 2012, and greater than a 50% increase over the decade from 2006 to 2016.
CHF3 said the bank of natural refrigerants grew by 14 per cent, with CO2 and hydrocarbons the big contributors to that rise.
Every year an estimated 2 million devices con- taining more than 1,990 tonnes of refrigerant reach the end of their useful life, including 110 tonnes in domestic refrigerators and freezers, 1,240 tonnes in air conditioners, 420 tonnes in motor vehicles of all types, and 220 tonnes in commercial refrigeration equipment, the re- port said.
In a first phase of small and medium AC driven growth in the 6 years between 2006 and 2012 the bank expanded by more than 45%, from an estimated 30,169 tonnes in 2006 to a total bank of 43,500 tonnes in 2012. At least 40% of the total growth in the bank in those 6 years was contributed by refrigerants in small and medium AC.
Subsequently in the years from 2013 to 2016 the bank has continued to grow strongly, in- creasing by more than 17% to approximately 52,000 tonnes, led by the small AC stock of equipment. Refrigerant in small and medium AC is estimated to have made
up more than 37% of the growth in
that period.
NEW CHILLERS
There are estimated to be 22,600 chill- ers operating in Australia in 2016, con-
taining in total approximately 4,200 tonnes of refrigerant.
New chillers sales are expected grow at around 1% per annum or in line with construc- tion activity in large commercial buildings. The HFO refrigerant of choice for large centrifugal chillers is HFO-1233zd.
SPLIT SYSTEMS
Single split systems sales including wall hung, cassette, consoles and ducted systems have grown rapidly from 2012 to 2017 with annual sales reported of 833,000 in 2012; 887,000 in 2013; 934,000 in 2014; 1,000,000 in 2015; and 1,177,000 in 2016. This strong sales growth continued into 2017 when a record number of 1,356,000 single split systems were sold.
The split system market has experienced sol- id compound annual growth rates (CAGR) of around 5.5% from 2012 to 2016 with a significant increase in sales of HFC-32 charged systems of more than 30% in 2017 compared to 2016. By the end of 2016 there had been 964,000 air condi- tioning units containing HFC-32 imported, mostly split systems, containing a total of 1,039
tonnes of the refrigerant. The count of HFC-32 charged systems exceeded one million pieces part way through the first quarter of 2017.
Thinkwell managing director and co- author of CHF3, Michael McCann pre- sented excerpts from the report earlier this year at ARBS 2018. ✺
CLIMATECONTROLNEWS.COM.AU
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