Carrier Split Condensers & AC Units  (18)

Over the last year, we’ve become all too familiar with the risk posed by a deadly airborne virus, but, as we move out of lockdown, there are other airborne hazards we urgently need to fight. However, while advice and guidance are abundant in the use of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems in combating the spread of COVID-19, there has been very little said of the risk of using HVAC systems after a prolonged period of inactivity. As those familiar with HVAC systems know, air conditioning and ventilation systems are designed to be used regularly, if not constantly. Enclosed and moist environments As systems convey air and/or cool it, systems build up moisture and, having been inactive for many months, if not for a whole year, these humid, enclosed, and moist environments will have become a breeding ground for bacteria, mold, and fungus. Mould or mildew can grow in air ducts, filters, or vents as well as in drip pans and coils Mould or mildew can grow in air ducts, filters, or vents as well as in drip pans and coils. It spreads through the production of microscopic spores which float through the air and deposit on surfaces. In the right environments, these spores can form mold colonies, where they can then produce more spores that can be spread further. Worse, these spores can survive and linger in an atmosphere for long periods, and some molds can be deadly. Exposure to mold Now imagine that a contaminated HVAC system, which has been inactive for weeks, months, or even a whole year, is switched back on: Immediately, a current of air carries the spores through the ducting before projecting them out across every inhabited space, ready for workers, shoppers or visitors who are venturing out after lockdown to touch, inhale, eat or drink. As well as smelling musty and unpleasant, mold exposure can cause cold or allergy-like symptoms such as a stuffy nose, cough, or sore throat as well as headaches, nausea, skin and respiratory diseases. It can also be particularly dangerous to people who are immunocompromised or who have conditions such as asthma. Routine maintenance It sounds disgusting, but the risk is very much real. Unfortunately, there has been very little advice or guidance from the UK government to make property managers or users aware of this issue and so many will have neglected to protect themselves and their workers or visitors. Mould has always been able to grow inside HVAC systems, and this is why owners are obliged to have them regularly serviced. But unless that routine maintenance has gone ahead as planned throughout the lockdowns, and unless their systems have been inspected and disinfected again before opening, COVID-19 will be just one of many airborne health hazards people will face this summer. No clear warnings Government guidance encourages the use of various HVAC systems as part of its COVID-secure strategies Of course, the UK is not the only country to have imposed lockdown restrictions, and, over in America, their health authority, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has published warnings around this. But, here in the UK, there have been no such messages: Government guidance encourages the use of various HVAC systems as part of its COVID-secure strategies, but it makes no clear warnings about the particular risk of using these after a period of prolonged inactivity. Mitigated risks I suspect that while larger workplaces with dedicated property managers and close connections to professionals such as ourselves will be more likely to have mitigated these risks, countless other organizations will not: I’m particularly concerned about small offices, hotels, restaurants, pubs, holiday cottages, and shops which may have systems unchecked for years and which would have had their hands full with other problems that were more pressing than maintaining an HVAC systems no-one is using. Cleaning and disinfecting HVAC Enhanced cleaning in other respects could also have made matters worse; if, for example, a carpet was shampooed at the start of lockdown and the HVAC system was turned off, a property manager will have inadvertently created the perfect environment for mold to thrive. Fortunately, HVAC systems can be disinfected and cleaned to make them safe again, but with so little awareness, many system owners will not be taking these steps. Action against mold However, while there may not be specific guidance in relation to the risk of mold in HVAC systems after lockdown, there are still laws in place which oblige property managers to take action. These include the Health & Safety at Work Act, The Workplace Health, Safety & Welfare Regulations, Occupiers Liability Act, and the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations. As a result, employers or property managers may be liable for illness or harm which may occur from the use of contaminated systems. As we approach the end of the lockdown restrictions, I would urge all HVAC engineers, property managers, and property maintenance professionals to immediately reach out to clients and warn them of this danger, because the last thing we need is another health crisis.

Across the globe, annual food loss amounts total to approximately 1.3 billion tons of waste and 4.4 gigatons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To put that in perspective: If food waste were a country, it would rank as the third largest GHG emitting country in the world, surpassed only by the United States and China. The average supermarket, which brings in about $35M in annual revenue, will see $526,590 worth of food waste and 3,600 MWh worth of wasted energy use, where about 2,000 MWh is used for refrigeration—the equivalent of 170 households. SaaS for temperature monitoring Clearly, there is both an economic and sustainability burden to food loss besides the revenue loss and environmental impact. Luckily, this burden can be eased when using Software as a Service (SaaS), like food temperature monitoring. Supermarkets who monitor their food temperatures will improve their margins and overall profitability by selling food at its full price rather than marked down due to over ripening or close to expiration date. This, in turn, will deliver improved customer satisfaction because supermarkets will be able to continue to stock fresh food while minimizing the sale of old and ripened provisions.Supermarkets who monitor their food temperatures will improve their margins and overall profitability There are many benefits of using SaaS to improve supermarket efficiency, which can help to reduce food waste and lower energy costs in countless supermarkets worldwide. Many of the roughly 50,000 food retail locations that utilize electronics controllers use some level of SaaS technology like Alsense Food Retail Services, the newest cloud offering from Danfoss Climate Solutions for supermarkets and food retail applications. Alsense Food Retail Services is a sustainable, scalable, and secure modern platform that delivers tangible data to improve operational and energy efficiency while optimizing the performance of food retail operations. Its technology is engineered to provide supermarkets with actionable insights that allow you to track refrigeration asset performance, respond to alarms, integrate 24/7 monitoring, reduce energy consumption, and more to deliver savings as high as a 40% reduction in food waste and 30% decrease in energy costs. Examples of food loss prevention with Alsense Food Retail Services The sensor in the meat fridge notices a high temperature and submits an alarm to the cloud The alarm is analyzed by the Danfoss Enterprise Service Team (Managed services) The reason for the alarm is determined and a service provider is contacted The service provider is dispatched to the supermarket to fix the issue in the meat fridge to avoid food loss Danfoss’ advanced algorithms detect if the refrigeration systems are running efficiently or if they are over consuming energy Alsense Food Retail Services is a sustainable, scalable, and secure modern platform that delivers tangible data to improve operational and energy efficiency while optimizing the performance of food retail operations aktiv & irma, a supermarket in North Germany, has shown significant savingsWithout SaaS, the store’s ROI will take much longer than if you rely solely on the hardware as part of the Alsense Food Retail Services pilot program. In collaboration with Danfoss, they installed a solar photovoltaic system, storage system, and a charging station for guests. All major assets in the supermarket system are linked through the Alsense Food Retail Services cloud to manage loads and eliminate unnecessary peaks to best use each store’s energy. Regulating energy levels is accomplished through a variety of methods that offer potential savings: Load shifting: As high as 20 kW in additional peak reductions ($1,758.30 potential savings). Compressor curtailment Solar: 112 MWh electricity produced ($16,410.80 savings) Battery: Grid demand reduced by 40 kW ($3,516.60 savings) Peak load shaving: Charging station is throttled if needed to maintain target max peak level in the store. ($2,344.40 potential savings) aktiv & irma saved about 15% in additional energy costs and reduced over 70 tons of CO2 for a total savings of $20,168.80 compared to other supermarkets. For supermarkets that are considering marrying SaaS with their hardware expenditure, the return on investment (ROI) will depend largely on their level of SaaS investment. Without SaaS, the store’s ROI will take much longer than if you rely solely on the hardware. To put it simply, the more robust the SaaS program, the quicker supermarkets will see a return on the overall system investment. Alsense Food Retail Services? A zero-net, even net positive, billable energy supermarket is possible. The prerequisites to make these savings happen are based on energy efficiency, particularly reducing overall consumption and onsite heat and electricity generation and storage. Energy arbitrage services can enable energy bill optimization. Essentially, this means that energy can be stored in a battery and used when prices in the grid are high.Precooling can also be used to cool down cabinets before prices increase Precooling (curtailment) can also be used to cool down cabinets before prices increase. Another option is to turn off compressors for as long as possible when the energy prices are high. This means temperatures will drift upwards, so turn on the compressors before the temperature compromises food quality. Lastly, supermarkets have further potential to balance the grid via fast Frequency Response, peak Load Shifting, and seasonal Buffering. SaaS technology, like Alsense Food Retail Services, is a strong compliment to hardware assets that can help supermarkets achieve higher profitability and food loss and waste reduction. If a supermarket aims to go zero- or positive-net, the solution is to invest in both hardware and SaaS.

Control Systems have always played an important part in the function of HVAC systems and for many years were centered around the safe and optimum performance of the hardware deployed. Every HVAC system is a closed-loop process, with inputs fed into control logic that determines the best course of action to achieve the desired output. Energy management and integration into Building Information Management saw the advent of energy-saving techniques like free cooling and night-time purge reduce mechanical cooling loads, whilst occupation data allowed greater holistic management of systems. These are well-recognized practices that are being refined using predictive weather data, additional focus on heat recovery and more environmentally energy sources. Control Systems have always played an important part in the function of HVAC systemsThe scope of the typical systems loosely described above are around the management of systems on one site and their operation and maintenance tends to be centered around that particular location. Multi-site Development & Management The UK temperature-controlled warehousing market tends to develop on a project-by-project basis that fosters the site-by-site focus of ongoing management and maintenance. For multi-site logistics operators and manufacturers and distributors with a multi-site portfolio. this approach has the following disadvantages: Disparate system KPI data collection and reporting Setpoint adjustment left to untrained operators who apply their individual assessment of compliance risk and often don’t consider the financial and operational implications of fine-tuning (or meddling) Enterprise-wide energy management is difficult to control Duplication of staff tasked with reporting and maintenance Inconsistency of measurement and interpretation Slow response to system failures Poor interpretation of operational processes that impact system efficiency Portfolio Management The distinction here is that a portfolio of temperature-controlled sites is managed centrally instead of independently. The enabler to the solution is the rapid Energy management and integration into Building Information Management saw the advent of energy-saving techniquesdevelopment of access control systems and data communication. The next step is vital in the customer engagement process; what do they want to see? What’s important and what is not? How often do they want to see it and in what format? From experience of going through this process this is a voyage of discovery for the warehouse operator in understanding the stakeholders in their business. Quality and compliance managers are the obvious starting point, facilities managers, finance managers who are tasked with reducing energy costs, customer service and the end customer. Alongside the KPI monitoring, Jet Environmentals created a hierarchy of alarms management that alerts the right people with system information, that triggers a sequence of actions driven by the data. Trends are monitored to predict where there might be a problem on the horizon so action can be taken before there is an issue. Faults and failures are alerted instantly and corrective action alerts sent to the right people.  Conclusion The continuous development of HVAC controls and reliability of secure data connections has provided a means of improving performance, lowering cost and building trust in provider/user relationships. To be successful, the roll-out of such a project requires the willingness and collaboration of all parties and the groundwork defining stakeholder requirements is vital in defining a scope that meets expectations.

Airthings, the pioneer in indoor air quality solutions and energy-saving technology, announces a strategic agreement with Edwards, a provider of fire detection and alarm solutions since 1872, and a part of Carrier Global Corporation, the global provider of healthy, safe, sustainable, and intelligent building solutions. The agreement commercializes Airthings’ business solution through more than 500 Edwards channel partners in the fire and security segment. Extending the distribution of Airthings technology represents tremendous progress toward making air quality monitoring a critical component of commercial buildings and as ubiquitous as the everyday smoke detector. Improving indoor environments “Edwards and Airthings share a mutual commitment to improving indoor environments. Expanding our comprehensive fire and life safety offering to include indoor air quality monitoring will further enable our customers to create safer, healthier indoor environments,” said Angie Gomez, President of Edwards. As part of the strategic agreement, Edwards will commercialize the Airthings for a Business solution through its Channel Partners in the United States and Canada. The Airthings for Business solution lets one monitor, visualize and control the indoor air quality to ensure a safer and healthier environment while saving on energy costs. Set up in a matter of minutes, the wireless monitors run on long-lasting batteries, making the solution easily scalable and customizable to any new or existing space. Accurate technology solutions Airthings sensors provide air quality data to Abound, Carrier’s new open-technology platform In addition, Airthings sensors provide air quality data to Abound, Carrier’s new open-technology platform designed to make building environments more intelligent, efficient, and responsive. Abound aggregates data from different systems and sensors and provides building owners, operators, and occupants transparency into relevant and contextual insights about air quality, thermal comfort, and other performance data. Airthings’ sensors will provide indoor air quality data and insights to the Abound platform via the Airthings API. “Airthings is on a mission to empower the world to breathe better through simple, affordable, and accurate technology solutions. Together with Edwards and Carrier, we can build on our pursuit of making air quality sensors an essential element of every building and home–helping even more people take control of their air quality and protect their health,” said Oyvind Birkenes, CEO of Airthings. Air quality monitoring “Entering a strategic agreement with a brand like Carrier is a massive step that will accelerate the evolution of air quality monitoring into an indispensable aspect of any HVAC system or building safety solution.” Why Indoor Air Quality Matters Buildings can harbor high levels of harmful substances and create conditions that are detrimental to not only health and wellbeing but productivity too. In fact, the air indoors is typically 2 to 5 times more polluted than outdoors according to the EPA. Since most people spend 90% of their time indoors, whether that is in school, the office or other buildings, it is important to ensure good air quality indoors.

Carrier is honored to have three heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) units in three different subcategories selected as finalists in the 17th annual Product of the Year Awards conducted by Consulting-Specifying Engineer® magazine. Companies submitted their new and improved products introduced in North America between April 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021, to be judged for this distinguished award. Carrier is a part of Carrier Global Corporation, the pioneering global provider of healthy, safe and sustainable building and cold chain solutions.  The Carrier Aero® 39M with ECM (electronically commutated motor) Direct Drive Plenum Fans was introduced in March 2021 and is recognized in the Air Handling Unit (AHU) subcategory for its airway lengths as short as 18 inches to fit into spaces that a traditional AHU may not fit.   Modular Waterside Economizer The Carrier® AquaForce® 30XV Variable-Speed Air-Cooled Screw Chiller with Modular Waterside Economizer launched in August 2020 and is listed in the Chiller subcategory. The unit’s waterside economizer feature provides reliable performance during “free cooling” and can help eliminate equipment down time. The Carrier WeatherExpert® Variable Speed RTU with EcoBlue™ Technology was released in September 2020 and is competing in the Rooftop Unit subcategory for heating equipment or systems. This rooftop unit model series offers true variable-speed cooling capacity and control with the industry's first beltless direct-drive vane axial fan designed to vary cooling capacity down to 25% and up to 105% of normal capacity. Other technological advances that differentiate these units include the intelligent, intuitive and integrated SystemVu™ controls and coil technology that uses proven round tube, plate fin designs, increased factory options and a tool-less filter access door. Voting for 2021 Product of the Year program is open to qualified subscribers of Consulting-Specifying Engineer products (print or digital magazine, enewsletters, white papers, etc.) from July 1, 2021 until Sept. 10, 2021.The product that receives the most votes within the program will be named the Most Valuable Product of 2021.

The road transport group Jacky Perrenot has selected Carrier Transicold to equip its first 100% electric Renault truck. The vehicle was put into service last month and has been supplying several LIDL supermarkets in Paris and its inner suburbs. Carrier Transicold is part of Carrier Global Corporation, the foremost global provider of healthy, safe, and sustainable building, and cold chain solutions. About Jacky Perrenot For several years now, Jacky Perrenot has been a front-runner in the field of alternative energy and environmentally sustainable transport. This strong environmental commitment resulted in the collaboration with Carrier Transicold. “We turned to Carrier Transicold to help execute LIDL’s energy transition of its vehicle fleet to 20% electric,” explained Denis Bertin, General Manager of Operations and Development, Jacky Perrenot. “To meet this objective, we sought to develop a fully electric vehicle with Renault trucks that produce no CO2 emissions.” ATP FRC Technology and Certification Carrier Transicold equips 95% of its fleet of temperature-controlled vehicles, that must meet ATP FRC certification For the refrigeration unit, Jacky Perrenot turned to its long-standing partner Carrier Transicold, which equips 95% of its fleet of temperature-controlled vehicles, that must meet ATP FRC certification requirements. “Carrier Transicold was the only provider to offer FRC technology,” added Bertin. “This project is a successful collaborative effort to meet our environmental sustainability goals in the service of environmental performance. On the strength of this experience, we are already working on the preparation of a second all-electric vehicle.” Syberia refrigeration unit To meet the all-electric challenge, Carrier Transicold equipped the truck with its Syberia refrigeration unit. The dual-temperature unit is connected to the vehicle's battery using Carrier Transicold’s Eco-Drive™ hydroelectric module, which converts the direct current produced and stored by the truck while driving into the alternating current required to operate the refrigeration unit. This creates a fully self-sustaining virtuous system that produces no direct carbon dioxide (CO2) or particulate emissions. The unit is PIEK certified and emits less than 60 dB(A). Taking road transport forward “Jacky Perrenot has always been a pioneer in the adoption of alternative energies, such as the first natural-gas vehicles we equipped. With this new all-electric project, Jacky Perrenot is once again demonstrating its desire to take road transport forward with the energy transition. We welcome this commitment,” said Didier Urbaniak, General Sales Manager of Carrier Transicold France. Syberia units are one of the solutions offered through Carrier’s Healthy, Safe, Sustainable Cold Chain Program to preserve and protect the supply of food, medicine, and vaccines.