Page 26 - Climate Control News Magazine May 2019

Happy Anniversary
200TH ISSUE
From 2019 to 2036: the next 17 years
THE HVACR INDUSTRY has come a long way since 2002, but what's next? CCN interviewed ex- ecutives that were around in 2002 and are still here today to discuss where the industry is heading.
The roundtable discussion included CAREL CEO (APAC Sth Region), Kevin Marr, ABB HVAC segment manager (Drives), Paul Burrows and Polaris Technologies director, Tony Power.
CCN: WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE BIGGEST TRENDS IMPACTING HVAC RIGHT NOW?
MARR: Natural refrigerants, energy saving and connectivity (IoT)
POWER: Clearly in the Polaris part of the world it is energy efficiency and climate impact.
A lot of energy and deeply concerned individu- als are looking at how we can best change the do nothing approach.
The large refrigeration sector is well ahead with transmittal CO2 and low charge ammonia systems, some of this is world leading Australi- an technology
HVAC unfortunately seems to be doing some catch up particularly on the predictive
maintenance and energy management side If we don’t take some serious action now the HVAC&R industry will become part of
the problem.
CCN: WHERE ARE WE HEADING? BURROWS: Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT),
AI and machine learning, will enable greater en- gagement between tenant and building. In fu- ture, our smarter buildings will actively extend into some of the promised concepts of smart cit-
“TO REMAIN COMPETITIVE IT IS IMPORTANT TO DIFFERENTIATE AND KEEP MARGINS HIGH.”
– TONY POWER.
ies where our buildings communicate with each other and other infrastructure. In particular I see greater connection with our utilities, to offer new mechanisms to schedule, reduce and smooth de- mand on primary generation, which in turn will
lower cost and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. One thing is for sure, we are all in a race to commercialise technology and lead the market in an increasingly digitalised world.
CCN: HOW IS YOUR COMPANY ADDRESSING THESE TRENDS
AND CHALLENGES?
ABB HVAC segment manager (Drives), Paul Burrows.
MARR: CAREL is investing in all three of the trends I mentioned and applying it to solution development. This requires not only product development competence, but also application knowledge to fully understand the market, and to offer complete solutions in a plug and play approach for OEM’s.
Often these solutions combine all three of the major trends. For example our HECU CO2 condensing unit control solution development, which enables our OEM partners to introduce high efficiency BLDC compressor technology, natural refrigerants as well as offering the mar- ket connectivity for services and monitoring.
Climate change continues to dominate customer conversations.
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