We frequently talk about the rapid rate of change in the HVAC industry with major interrupters such as ozone depletion, climate change, political turmoil, times of economic crisis and rapidly changing prices of energy requiring swift and frequent changes in direction by equipment makers and system designers throughout the industry.

However, one thing has remained constant throughout the decades - the continuing march to more efficient products and systems. This despite having to phase out the lifeblood of HVAC equipment, the refrigerant, not once but twice in the last 15 years.

The HVAC NEWS recently surveyed industry representatives to see how they were keeping up in this race. The NEWS article "Chillers Striving for Greater Efficiency" provides insight into the "new" ways efficiency gains are being obtained, such as:

• Ross Miglio, president of ClimaCool Corp., said he is seeing trends toward "increased awareness for system efficiency utilizing variable flow, overall part-load performance, as well as chiller heat recovery."
• Alfa Laval is focusing on three key areas that impact chiller efficiency: the heat exchanger surface, refrigerant management, and distribution and fluid handling.
• MultiStack's Mike Clatworthy opines "...the exponential growth and availability of data. Many system components are capable of reporting huge, previously unavailable quantities of data that allow us to know exactly how our system is performing and where its problems are."

Increasingly smart equipment control systems can respond to changes in an operating system and make adjustments to reduce energy consumption while still meeting the varying load.

Building Management Systems continue to get smarter in handling the increasing amount of data available on past and current operating conditions.

Emphasis continues to be toward total building efficiency rather than focusing on simply specifying high efficiency cooling towers, air handlers, pumps and chillers.

And.... the march goes on...pushing chiller efficiencies even higher.

Read more at The NEWS.

Editor's Note: CR4 would like to thank Larry Butz, GEA Consulting President, for contributing this blog entry.