Feature
Weathered rusty refrigeration rack in a factory .
It seems only a matter of time before Artificial Intelligence bleeds over to the HVAC industry , and WIKA marketing manager : Greg Rusznyak says we may be on the cusp of that time now . The CEO of WIKA in Germany has stated that by 2030 80 % of its measurements will be digital , and Rusznyak for instance sees a role for ChatGPT in answering product and installation queries in real time within the near future .
“ A lot of the time a customer wants information immediately and technology such as ChatGPT could remove the need for a human sitting idle waiting for a call , or another employee for whom the query is just a distraction ,” says Townsend . That ’ s not taking jobs away but making workflow more efficient .
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This future is what WIKA is at the moment working towards in collaboration with other players through organisations such as the Lora Alliance and the Mioty Alliance as part of Industrial Internet of Things ( IIOT ). “ Our company is dedicating a great deal of research to this future trend .”
Townsend explains that while a significant portion of gauges sold in the South African market remain analogue , this reflects the persisting culture in the country whereby technicians still like to see a gauge ’ s reading , but elsewhere the trend is firmly towards digital .
He explains that digitisation of HVAC systems is typically run in BMS ( Building management Systems ) environments and not yet connected with ERP systems . BMS has the metrics to put the HVAC on and off , reduce power and adjust to external air environments and level of CO 2
. “ We would typically be connected and feed data into that system . We have an HVAC application which feeds into a BMS , monitoring temperature , pressure and humidity and ensuring there is not too much CO 2 in the air . We provide sensors , and many BMS developers will include such sensors in their design .
“ The digital technology already exists . There remain only concerns as to how to include all the data and to verify its trustworthiness from a human interaction perspective – for at certain key points human interventions are required . It is this area customer scepticism arises which holds back adoption rates . The technology is ready – the question is , are South Africans ready ?
“ We have for many years made a regular analogue pressure gauge which remains a big chunk of our business . There ' s still a lot of people who operate a plant in such a way that they can get up
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RACA Journal I April 2023 www . refrigerationandaircon . co . za