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systems and self-contained units. Typically, one unit will be
installed per room, apart from VRF systems and multi-splits which
can be used to cool several rooms. UAC is the largest cooling
market with about 30% of the three billion pieces of cooling
equipment in use around the globe.
Given their abundance, UACs are a major contributor
to cooling related GHG emissions, estimated by the Green
Cooling Initiative to be 1.28Gt of CO 2 eq – equivalent to around
30% of total cooling GHG emissions. The 1.28Gt of CO 2 eq
break down into 330Mt related to refrigerant emissions and
950Mt from indirect emissions due to electricity consumption.
Potential emissions reductions through effective optimisation,
monitoring, and maintenance are estimated to be 190Mt CO 2 eq
per year based on 2016 electricity consumption, rising to 290Mt
CO 2 eq p.a. by 2030 – equivalent to the emissions of over 70
coal-fired power plants in one year. By comparison, the UN’s
United for Efficiency (U4E) estimates the total emissions savings
opportunity across 150 developing countries of switching to
energy efficient and climate friendly air conditioners at 480 Mt
CO 2 eq p.a. by 2030. Emissions reductions do not include those
that exist due to better leakage management.
Following this same approach, an estimate for the potential
impact of better optimisation, monitoring, and maintenance
on the overall cooling market to 2050 can be obtained. Based
on total cooling emissions from electricity in 2016 of 2.6Gt
CO 2 eq, 20% savings would deliver 0.5Gt CO 2 eq of savings p.a.
Again, assuming a 3% compound annual growth rate, total
savings could reach 1.4Gt p.a. by 2050 – equivalent to the
emissions of nearly 350 coal-fired power plants for a year. This
would represent a cumulative saving of 30Gt by 2050.
Given the scale of GHG impacts due to UAC, current global
and regional initiatives are focused on controlling emissions
due to product design inefficiencies, including the United
for Efficiency initiatives like the Super-efficient Equipment
and Appliance Deployment (SEAD) Initiative, CLASP, and EU
EcoDesign.
In addition to initiatives encouraging use of energy efficient
products, policy makers are encouraged to develop national
cooling equipment optimisation, monitoring, and maintenance
competencies in industry and the user base. This could include:
• Setting up an independent national standards body,
• Creation of national standards for cooling optimisation,
monitoring, and maintenance,
• Programme of audits of refrigeration technologies to
identify optimisation, monitoring, and maintenance
opportunities,
• Investment in facilities providing best practice training
in, as examples, equipment optimisation and monitoring,
supplier maintenance, or customer maintenance
management programmes,
www.hvacronline.co.za
•
Developing supply chains for optimisation, monitoring,
and maintenance technologies.
Adoption of such practices could reduce needless emissions
due to poor optimisation, monitoring, and maintenance
practices.
OPTIMISATION, MONITORING, AND
MAINTENANCE PROJECTS
Organisations
that have
taken
advantage of
maintaining
their cooling
technology
have yielded
good energy
results.
From initial research undertaken as part of preparing this brief,
few examples of programmes focused on better optimisation,
monitoring, and maintenance of cooling equipment have
been uncovered – possibly reflecting difficulties implementing
programmes in some hard-to-reach sectors (for example
residential) or that these elements in other sectors (e.g.
commercial) are not made explicit.
Nevertheless, it seems likely that optimisation, monitoring,
and maintenance programmes represent a major opportunity
for energy and emissions savings. The following examples of
what has been done give a sense of what can be implemented
on the ground to take advantage of this huge opportunity.
ASHRAE
A trial to understand the benefits of coil cleaning was
conducted at 1500 Broadway, Times Square in New York City
in 2005. The 34-storey building has four air handling units
servicing 111 500m 2 of air conditioned and heated space. The
trial showed that good maintenance and operating practices
including coil cleaning significantly improved the energy
efficiency of the HVAC&R systems by 10 to 15% and delivered
comfort increases. The trial also identified other optimisation
and maintenance processes that will improve energy efficiency
for years to come.
RACA Journal I May 2020
11