DC Pro Engineering UAE, a leading global authority in district energy, has urged the GCC’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) industry to adopt new technologies that address energy efficiency and environmental concerns.

Speaking during a Sustainability Workshop on the opening day of the Big 5 International Building & Construction Show in Dubai, UAE, George Berbari, CEO of DC Pro, urged regional firms to adopt more sustainable, energy efficient and environmentally friendly HVAC solutions and assess the current technologies used such as electric district cooling, variable refrigerant flow (VRF), fresh air systems, air cooled refrigeration RAC, splits, ducted splits, packages and chillers.

“Even district cooling technology needs to evolve into an industry that embraces the future and offers serious solutions to global warming at competitive rates that customers can afford,” Berbari said. “Meanwhile, Air-Cooled systems continue to dominate 70% of the HVAC market without offering any significant power saving features.”

DC Pro also raised concerns about power saving and refrigerant safety issues in VRF as well as in the design of fresh air systems.

Among the recommendations made by DC Pro included the upgrading of existing District Cooling systems from partial to 100 per cent usage of the Thermal Storage and Treated Sewage Effluent (TSE).

DC Pro also stressed that District Cooling has to embrace Renewable Energy such as Solar PV (onsite or remote) and deep geothermal energy, and move into full Tri-Generation using Bio Fuels synchronized with renewables. This, DC Pro said, would save 75% primary energy as compared with the current Electric District Cooling.

On Air-Cooled systems, DC Pro suggested that Water-Cooled units using closed loop Geothermal are ideal for villas as they can achieve 1.0 to 1.1 KW / Ton or less. It was also further suggested that large systems above 200 Ton should be designed to the more efficient Water-Cooled system using Grey or TSE water for Cooling Towers or close loop Geothermal.

Regarding VRF systems, DC Pro explained that while Water-Cooled VRF may reduce operating refrigerant pressure, reduce refrigerant piping and result in system efficiency below 1.0 KW / Ton, Air or Water-Cooled Variable Water Flow (VWF) will take over VRF as this technology will be able to measure efficiency and contain refrigerant in the outdoor unit only.

For Fresh Air systems, DC Pro recommended that Heat Recovery Wheels with a minimum 80 per cent efficiency should be used. The company also called on stringent pre-qualification of HRW as well as the need for local testing Labs to be in place to scrutinize the highly chaotic trade happening in the GCC. In addition, they also emphasized that proper control and automation of Fresh Air (FA) Air Handling Units (AHU) with proper BTU meters and KWh meters be installed on every FA AHU. – TradeArabia News Service