Page 19
Category: News
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A chameleon coating for buildings
In the natural world, chameleons can change colour to reflect heat and stay cool or transition to a darker colour to absorb heat. Now, researchers from the American Chemical Society have developed a coating inspired by the Namaqua chameleon, which acts as a colour-shifting coating. Fuqiang Wang and colleagues wanted to create a coating that […]
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Bill Gates-backed heat battery coming to Australia
California-based start up Rondo Energy is moving to Australia to launch a new heat battery. Australia is the third region the company is targeting after the USA and Europe. Rondo Energy already has 2.4GWhs of battery storage manufacturing online in Thailand, with expansion plans to hit 90GWhs to fulfill regional and global demand. It has […]
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Vertiv acquires water-based chiller technology
Vertiv – the former Emerson Network Power business, owners of Liebert-brand chillers and provider of equipment and services for data centres – has acquired the patents and other assets of German company Efficient Energy GmbH. Efficient Energy, the manufacturer of chillers that use water as a refrigerant, entered administration on June 2 after the collapse […]
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Finalists named for AIRAH Awards 2023
AIRAH has named the finalists for its 2023 industry awards. The AIRAH Awards celebrate the leading projects, people, products and initiatives at the vanguard of HVAC&R. “The AIRAH Awards program provides another avenue to highlight and celebrate the tremendous work being done by the talented teams and individuals within our critical industry,” says AIRAH’s Education […]
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Heritage Lanes comes up 6 star
Mirvac has achieved a 6 star Green Star Buildings V1 certified rating from the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) for its Heritage Lanes project in Brisbane. According to AECOM, the consulting firm that worked on the project, Heritage Lanes is an Australian first. A 74,000m2, 35-storey premium office tower in Brisbane’s CBD, It retains […]
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Measuring health benefits of energy efficiency
Researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston University, and Oregon State University have devised a new methodology that calculates the health and climate benefits from saving energy in buildings. The research is part of a four-year project called Co-benefits of the Built Environment (CoBE), which originally focused on calculating the health and […]
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Milking the system: cooler cows keep it flowing
University of Queensland researchers have demonstrated how dairy cows can be kept cool 24/7, helping to prevent heat stress, adding to the cows’ welfare, and increasing milk production. With hot weather often impacting dairy cattle health, wellbeing, and overall milk production, dairy producers will use a variety of cooling strategies to prevent heat stress in […]
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Ramping up flexible demand in Australia
One of the big challenges Australia faces as the grid decarbonises is how to ensure reliable supply from intermittent renewable energy sources. Alongside this challenge is a big opportunity: the potential to use distributed energy resources (DERs) in buildings, such as HVAC systems, electric vehicles and batteries to manage demand. This has the threefold benefit […]
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Time to prepare cooling centres in Australia?
Heatwaves with record-setting peaks, duration, and timing are becoming more and more familiar around the world. Last week, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service declared that June–August – the northern hemisphere summer – was the hottest such period since records began in 1940, topping the previous record by a significant margin. In Phoenix, Arizona, […]
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Electricity critical for driving decarbonisation
Electricity generated by solar and wind technology is poised to become Australia’s most dominant source of energy, according to a new report. Released by the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE), Powering the Net Zero Transition: Electricity Security Explained responds to electricity as a critical component for driving decarbonisation across a wide range […]
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Roadmap to a circular economy
Monash University’s BehaviourWorks Australia has developed a roadmap for circular consumption, to assist industry bodies and policy-makers in addressing the ongoing waste crisis. The Behavioural Roadmap to Circular Consumption identifies areas in the production-consumption cycle where changes can be made, opportunities to reduce Australia’s material footprint, and ways to encourage the efficient use of limited resources. […]
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Pilot program for women in construction
The Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council (ASBEC), with assistance from the NSW government’s Women in Construction Industry Innovation Program (IIP) grant, has launched the ASBEC Women in Construction Future Leaders Pilot. The pilot seeks to promote gender diversity within the construction sector to create lasting transformative change. “Increasing leadership and participation of women in Australia’s […]
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Norway moving towards natural refrigerants
One of Norway’s largest property administrators, Oslobygg, has mandated the use of natural refrigerants in all comfort cooling systems and heat pumps installed in Oslo’s municipal buildings. The company’s previous requirement was that a refrigerant’s global warming potential (GWP) value should be below 10, which often led to the use of synthetic refrigerants. Technical project advisor […]
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Buildings journal invites IAQ articles
Buildings, an international, scientific, peer-reviewed, open-access journal on building science, building engineering and architecture published monthly online by MDPI, is seeking submissions for a special issue dedicated to indoor air quality. Guest editors Dr Shamila Haddad and Dr Arianna Brambilla from the School of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney, and Professor Dr Baojie He […]
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Time to close the natural ventilation loophole
How to improve indoor air quality in Australia’s public spaces? Experts from diverse disciplines have put forward various answers to this question. One solution, flagged by mechanical engineers long before the pandemic, remains frustratingly obvious for those in the HVAC&R industry: revisiting the provisions for natural ventilation in the National Construction Code (NCC). According to […]
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Pathway for procurement in green construction
The Australian Procurement and Construction Council (APCC) has published a best practice guide for procurement to support more sustainable construction. The Pathway to Green Construction Procurement sets out the documentation and decision-making processes required by government officials to realise green construction of government infrastructure assets. It includes the full range of environmental sustainability impact factors […]
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Daikin opens high-tech centre in Adelaide
Daikin Australia has officially opened a new state-of-the-art facility in Adelaide, South Australia. The opening ceremony was attended by Daikin dealers and key business partners involved in the development of the site. Daikin’s South Australia State Manager Matthew Tonkin; Daikin Australia Director – HR, Corporate Affairs and Service, Ian Hurley, Affil.AIRAH; and General Manager – […]
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Master Plumbers condemns gas bans
The Master Plumbers Association (MPA) of New South Wales has criticised the City of Sydney, the City of Parramatta and other local government areas (LGAs) proposing a ban on implementing gas in new builds in the state. “This move demonstrates a clear lack of consideration for its impact on essential services, such as heating, hot […]
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Infrastructure and the path to net zero
Ten industry bodies have joined forced to co-ordinate, collaborate and report on Australian infrastructure’s pathway to net zero. The Infrastructure Net Zero collaboration will share the responsibility of decarbonisation, and look at methods to combine the time, effort and expertise to develop initiatives to drive change. It will be led by a steering committee with […]
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Shipping container opens doors for cooling
Researchers from Washington State University (WSU) have created a test chamber within a shipping container to trial passive cooling systems. The project aims to help researchers and builders test carbon-free systems in a controlled environment, such as using wind towers or water evaporation instead of electricity to cool spaces. Lead author of the study and […]