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Category: News
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Vale David Norman, engineering legend
Norman Disney & Young (NDY) founder David Norman passed away recently, aged 90. “David Norman, founder of Norman Disney & Young, was a pioneer of the engineering consultancy industry in Australia,” says NDY. “With a focus on service and communication, as well as innovative results, his methods proved well ahead of their time, and paved […]
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Coronavirus and HVAC
Since the first case was detected in China in December 2019, the novel (new) coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has spread rapidly. On January 31, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus a public health emergency. Although the vast majority of coronavirus patients have been in China, cases have been confirmed in Australia. Not surprisingly, local […]
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RAC course shut down
Trades College Australia in Punchbowl, Sydney, has lost its RTO status for issues related to the delivery of recognition of prior learning (RPL) for refrigeration and air conditioning (RAC) courses. The Australian Refrigeration Council (ARC) worked with the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), the training industry regulator, on the case. ASQA took action against Trades […]
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Beijer Ref acquires ACD Trade
Global refrigeration wholesaler Beijer Ref AB has signed an agreement to acquire all shares in the Australian HVAC company ACD Trade. ACD Trade is a leading HVAC distribution company in Australia with around 60 employees. The company supplies the market with well-known brands and has a wide range of products, which includes both HVAC units […]
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Apple, Amazon, Google team up on smart home standard
Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance have joined together to work on Project Connected Home over IP, or CHIP. The new, royalty-free connectivity standard aims to increase compatibility among smart home products, with a focus on security. According to the CHIP website, the goal of the project is to simplify development for manufacturers and […]
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R32 expanding rapidly in EU
The Building Services Research & Information Association (BSRIA) has predicted the R32 market share for split systems in Europe will exceed 80 per cent by 2023. According to its research, R32 accounted for approximately 37 per cent of the market in 2019. R32 has a lower global warming potential (GWP) than other refrigerants (of 675), […]
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Rogue HFC23 emissions on the rise
A new report in Nature Communications has highlighted a large and unexpected increase in emissions of HFC23 – a hydrofluorocarbon with extremely high global warming potential that is mainly produced as an unwanted by-product during the manufacture of R22. R22 is a hydrochorofluorocarbon (HCFC) that destroys the ozone layer, and it is being phased out […]
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24ºC new AC default in India
The Indian government has announced that 24ºC will be the new default temperature for air conditioners (AC). This includes all air conditioners that are labelled under the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE)-star program. The default setting is the setting at which a machine comes from the factory. Gadgets Now reports that very few people in India […]
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ASHRAE upgrades its global HQ
ASHRAE (the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) has commenced construction on its new global headquarters renovation project. ASHRAE marked the occasion with a launch event on January 10. The building is a two-story, 66,700 square-foot building in Georgia, USA, and will include features such as: Energy-efficient HVAC and lighting systems Water-efficient plumbing […]
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The ultimate beer for fridgies?
San Diego-based craft brewery Ballast Point is taking sustainability to heady new heights, by using condensate from air conditioning systems to make beer. Ballast Point has teamed up with San Diego International Airport to use waste water for the new SAN Test Pilot beer. The airport has been collecting the condensate dripping from the AC […]
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Videos on new energy labels
Last year the government ran information training sessions on the new energy labels that will soon start appearing on air conditioners. It has now placed a suite of information related to the content of the information sessions on the Energy Rating website. This includes a series of videos based on the information sessions. The videos […]
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The top dog in trade
Forty-year-old Queensland apprentice Troy Connors has been awarded the Refrigeration and Air conditioning Apprentice of the Year award, at the second annual TAFE Queensland – SkillsTech Apprentice Awards evening. Connors says he was honoured to be recognised and wasn’t expecting to win. “To be awarded Apprentice of the Year feels pretty surreal,” he says. “It was very […]
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Advice for workers in smoky conditions
As a result of the bushfires burning throughout Australia, smoke has been affecting large parts of the country, including capital cities. On Monday in the Melbourne CBD, the air quality index (AQI) peaked at 213, considered “very unhealthy”. The suburb of Box Hill experienced an AQI of 372, considered “hazardous”. According to the Environment Protection […]
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Closing the energy performance gap
The Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre (SBEnrc) and the Australian Department of the Environment and Energy have partnered to produce a research report about building energy performance. The report was commissioned as part of the IEA’s Building Energy Efficiency Taskforce (BEET). Building energy efficiency has been identified as a cost-effective opportunity to reduce energy consumption […]
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Cold Logic signs MoU
Australian refrigeration specialist Cold Logic has signed an exclusive memorandum of understanding with UK naval refrigeration supplier Ernest West & Beynon. Ernest West & Beynon is currently supplying the provision cooling systems for BAE Systems UK Type 26 class, which is the baseline design for Australia’s Hunter class. Cold Logic is delivering state-of-the-art upgrades to […]
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Oomiak opens KL office
Australian industrial refrigeration specialist Oomiak is expanding into the Asian market. The Adelaide-based company has opened a Malaysian office in Kuala Lumpur in response to growing demand from South East Asia. “We’ve experienced a significant increase in demand from the Asian market for high quality industrial refrigeration systems, so opening an office in the region […]
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RMIT seeks HVAC&R projects
RMIT University is seeking to promote the refrigeration, air conditioning and heating disciplines with its engineering students. The university is looking for industrial partners in this space to partner with the School of Engineering and propose potential student research projects, or “capstone projects”, for 2020. What is a capstone project? Undergraduate engineering students are all […]
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Kirby and Beijer Ref reveal expansion plans
Kirby and Beijer Ref Australia have committed to a 10-year lease on a new $48 million purpose-built industrial property at Altitude, Bankstown Airport, NSW. Bankstown Airport is a prime location for the business, due to its close proximity to the M5 and M7 motorways and local amenities. The new 22,000m2 manufacturing and distribution centre, on […]
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Professional registration timetable confirmed
The Victorian government is moving ahead with its plan for compulsory professional registration of engineers, and has released more information about when and how the scheme will come into effect. Consumer Affairs Victoria held a forum on Monday, December 2 with engineers who have previously expressed an interest in the engineers registration scheme. The forum […]
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Help fix the skills gap
The Australian Industry Standards annual skills survey is open, and all members of the HVAC&R industry are encouraged to participate. “This is the best opportunity refrigeration and air conditioning employers will get to voice their opinion,” says long-time educator and member of the RAC technical advisory committee (TAC), Steve Smith. “They can indicate whether the […]