Commercial ACs are phenomenal machines: enormous, powerful and massive consumers of energy, cooling the biggest of buildings. But can these units operate as sustainably as possible?
Traditional ACs run on vapour compression, invented in the early 1900s, but it is an energy-intensive and environmentally harmful technique, emitting vast quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The race is on to develop improved technology that allows for similar performance to existing technology, but without the excessive energy consumption and damaging impact on the environment.
A key change to the vapour compression tech is the refrigerant used to cool water flowing through the systems. On the receiving end of bad press thanks to the damage the chemicals cause to the ozone layer if leaked, refrigerant is, unfortunately, a necessary evil in air conditioning, but steps are being taken to make improvements. Daikin, a global supplier of commercial units with suppliers and distributors in Dubai and the wider region, utilises a low-global-warming refrigerant that allows for greater energy efficiency. According to the company’s reports, this reduced CO2 emissions from commercial ACs by 32 per cent in 2016. Most units now use one of only two types of refrigerants, both of which are less harmful to the ozone layer and other aspects of the environment if leaked.
Components have also changed. The original technology utilises a compressor, a system which requires vast energy consumption. Inverter technology — incorporated into many modern commercial AC units, including Samsung’s — sees a microcontroller respond to the ambient air temperature and automatically adjust the speed of the compressor, rather than operate on full power at all times. This extends the life of the unit’s parts, as well as eliminating sharp fluctuations in load and energy usage.
A key challenge for a commercial property aiming to operate sustainably is to accurately assess the sustainability of its air conditioning energy usage. Energy analysis software can help in this regard. A benchmarking platform by local facilities management company Farnek, Hotel Optimiser, lets hotels accurately measure energy output from various elements of their operation, including air conditioning, and compare it to similar properties so they can evaluate opportunities for energy saving. It factors in variables such as size and occupancy.
Improving commercial AC sustainability offers more than just environmental benefits, though. Commercial properties can expect to see financial gains too, says energy efficiency expert Dubai Carbon. “Within the remit of Dubai Carbon’s green economy consulting experience, we have seen that companies operating in a sustainable manner have lower operating costs and more resilient business operations,” says CEO Ivano Ianelli.
