Air-con market heats up

With air-conditioning gobbling up the biggest slice of the energy-consumption cake in the UAE, major manufacturers are starting to feel the heat as Dubai puts the finishing touches on its new green building regulations. Shikha Misha looks at some of the latest developments and trends.

The emphasis on sustainable construction is fast gaining momentum in the Middle East, with many countries jumping on the bandwagon. Both air-conditioning and district cooling are an essential infrastructure, and therefore have been relatively insulated from the recent economic downturn.

However, this has meant increased competition in these sectors, which has translated into a flurry of activity on the innovation front as the major players strive to differentiate their products as well as introduce new developments to the UAE.

Estidama of Abu Dhabi is currently working on a rating system of sustainable construction, while Qatar is also looking at mitigating the impact of its construction industry on the environment, remarks Carrier Middle East MD Aftab Khan. "The cooling industry in the Middle East has been growing exponentially, with increased government spending on developing infrastructure.

Cyclical nature

"However, the market behaves in a cyclical manner, and therefore any downward trend in the real estate sector will have a similar future effect on the HVAC industry, limiting its short-term prospects," cautions Khan. The sector is witnessing the emergence of new and high-growth areas such as environmentally-responsible refrigerants, energy-efficient systems, sustainable construction, indoor air quality and district cooling.

"There is also a shift in project profiles from single towers to large neighborhoods, pushing the demand for district cooling systems," says Khan. Carrier has increased its initiatives in the district cooling market with its existing range of centrifugal machines, and an extension to higher capacities with the new Evergreen 19XRD chiller that uses the non-ozone depleting refrigerant HFC-134a.

An increase in large-scale residential and commercial projects has also been pushing the growth of the district cooling sector. "In addition, the smaller residential property market is undergoing a shift from window air-conditioning units to more sophisticated products such as split and packaged units," comments Khan on the latest trends.

Recession is a good market

GreenWave Capital of the UAE was established itself in 2008, focusing on a product range designed to reduce the energy costs associated with air-conditioning. "This recession is a good time for us to come into the market. In a hotel, for example, when revenues and occupancy are down, the only way to balance budgets is to cut high operational expenditure associated with energy bills," explains GreenWave Capital CEO Connor McCaffrey.

The company manufactures PermaFrost, a product designed to enhance the performance of any air-conditioning or refrigeration system without modifications or alterations to the system itself. It can allegedly boost the efficiency of HVAC equipment by 20% to 40%, with a total energy saving of around 20%.

These numbers are to be sneezed at, especially considering that the UAE has the highest carbon footprint in the world, with construction a major contributor. "In the emirate's defense, we do burn fossil fuels for electricity. And the biggest consumer of electricity is air-conditioning, so having an AC unit that runs efficiently can help in reducing this carbon footprint significantly," says McCaffrey.

International regulation

District cooling service provider Tabreed CEO Khaled Salmeen comments that it is only a matter of time before the Middle East market aligns itself with international benchmark regulations such as the Montreal Protocol. This treaty is structured around several groups of halogenated hydrocarbons that have been shown to play a role in ozone depletion. All of these ozone-depleting substances contain either chlorine or bromine (however, substances containing fluorine only have been proven to not harm the ozone layer).

Some countries in the region have already started phasing out the use of refrigerants that damage the earth's ozone layer, while others are expected to follow suit gradually. According to the Montreal Protocol, the Middle East will have to stabilise these levels by 2013 and begin active reduction by 2015.

"Government initiatives, coupled with technological advancements, have led to various new air-conditioning products like absorption chillers and variable refrigerant systems being introduced into the market," says Al-Futtaim Engineering air-conditioning division regional manager Rajesh Bhatia. Al-Futtaim Engineering has partnered successfully with Sanyo in this highly-competitive sector.

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