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ASHRAE Winter Conference/AHR Expo – The HVAC Industry at a Glance

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By Larry Butz – GEA Consulting

Observations from this year’s Conference and Expo in Chicago January 21 - 25.

1. Largest show ever based on exhibitors and attendees
2. Continuing interest in heat pumps and heat recovery versions of products , e.g. I think we are finally getting serious about actual, real, installed energy efficiency.
3. Increasing interest in system performance (energy efficiency) rather than component efficiency.
4. Geothermal heat pumps and technologies continue to see expanding use; case studies are showing verifiable good results.
5. Growing use of microchannel heat exchangers.
6. New models and expanded offerings of modular chillers.
7. Low GWP refrigerants development and analysis activity accelerating. “Dial-a-Blend” refrigerants offering not as unrealistic as might have been thought. R-404A coming under a lot of pressure because of high GWP value. R-410A replacements (both drop-ins and new optimized alternatives) are being proposed. Get ready for a whole new set of acronyms for the different blends being proposed by the various refrigerant manufacturers.
8. Custom products for Data Servers, a rapidly expanding market in these days of increasing interest in “cloud” storage.
9. VRF (Variable Refrigerant Flow) seeing increasing expansion in use as industry slowly learns about this relatively new product.