RACA Journal: ISSN 1812-772X
Hot and chilled
INDUSTRY PUSHING AHEAD
AS BUSINESSES TRANSITION TO
‘NORMAL’ OPERATION
R
ACA Journal is back in print with its August issue. Like everyone else, we took a knock
during lockdown, went online-only in May, and passed by production of June and July
issues to give our stretched contract advertisers a breather.
You may find the magazine unusually slim compared with what you may be used to. A
magazine such as ours, which provides a vital, valuable (and almost the only) communication
platform to the national HEVACR industry, depends not only on subscribers, but support from the
industry. We therefore thank all of our loyal supporters and trust that the industry will continue to
see the necessity of this product as businesses fight for business – now more than ever.
We are all cutting every unnecessary expense during the pandemic. However, we appeal to
the industry to recognise the value of having a national voice and in building their brand among
the HEVACR community. Until we return to pre-pandemic levels, we will still continue to bring
you news, features, case studies and technical information.
As we experience unprecedented times, opportunity arises for new ways of doing
business, new products, and new thinking. There have also been some announcements of
big international mergers and some companies reporting growth over the period as they set
up their business and are able to have quick strategic turnarounds to cater to specific market
needs. Over the last few months there has been much speculation that should we have to
face a pandemic such as the Covid-19 virus, that the HVAC sector could play a significant
role in increasing a building’s health factor through the use of improved filters and air flows.
Since hindsight is a perfect science as they say, the practicality around this one would have to
question. What are your thoughts on the matter? We would love to hear from you in this regard
and also what your forecasts are for your own business going forward.
As users of HVAC also transition to re-open their businesses after some months of
lockdown, there could be further opportunities for the sector to take up the opportunity to
assist business in targeted maintenance of their systems as we are quite sure that besides
essential services, many systems have been offline.
In this issue our feature looks at compressors and their continual development. Our project
looks at the University of Pretoria Engineering building: an HVAC system by engineers for
engineers, and we carry our regular contributor articles to keep you learning or refreshing your
knowledge. We also publish, through permission of Bitzer, a portion of their Refrigerant Report,
as refrigerant, both legal and illegal, is a continuous hot topic.
We look forward to getting back to whatever the ‘new normal’ is going to be, and we
continue to welcome any customer contributions and to share in your business’s news,
events and celebrations. After all, being able to trade again, produce again and sell again is a
celebration in itself!
Stay safe. The RACA Journal Team RACA
Dale Macnamara
Business unit lead | [email protected]
www.hvacronline.co.za www.hvacronline.co.za
RACA Journal I August 2020
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