IRHACE Industry Journal June 2023

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

HFCS ARE POTENT GREENHOUSE GASES

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF SLOWING DOWN THE FAN DURING THE OFF-CYCLE?

HOW DOES INDOOR AIR QUALITY (IAQ) IMPACT FIT-FOR-PURPOSE ENVIRONMENTS?

REGISTER TO WIN THE ULTIMATE FISHING & ADVENTURE PACKAGE

A3 REFRIGERANT AWARENESS IS HERE

The Industry Journal for the New Zealand Refrigeration, Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning Industries

How does indoor air quality (IAQ) impact fit-for-purpose environments?

PUBLISHER

v/CCCANZ/RLNZ

IRHACE: www.irhace.org.nz

CCCANZ: www.cccanz.org.nz

RLNZ: www.rlnz.org.nz

EDITOR

HVAC&R Centre admin@irhace.org.nz

MEMBERSHIP admin@irhace.org.nz admin@cccanz.org.nz

REFRIGERANT LICENSING & COURSES admin@rlnz.org.nz

ADVERTISING admin@irhace.org.nz

DESIGN

Bellacreative Ltd

HVAC&R CENTRE

PO Box 217184

Botany Junction 2164

Auckland, New Zealand

e: admin@irhace.org.nz

e: admin@cccanz.org.nz

e: admin@rlnz.org.nz

No part of this journal may be printed in other publications without prior written permission of the Managing Editor.

Disclaimer: Statements expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the policies or views of the associations, and members of IRHACE or CCCANZ. The IRHACE Journal publishes both local and international articles. Standards and or practices may differ from current New Zealand standards and or practices used. No responsibility is accepted by the associations and editor for the accuracy of information or for errors or omissions. The IRHACE Journal is distributed to all the IRHACE and CCCANZ financial members.

ISSN 01148257

MARK MEYER IRHACE PRESIDENT

Coming up in June, we look forward to seeing you all at the HVAC&R Hub on 20-21 June 2023 at the Auckland Showgrounds. The speaker line up includes topics of Flammable Refrigerants, Women in industry and the good, the bad and the future of the H1 changes.

Registration is FREE! Make sure you Register to be in to Win the Ultimate Fishing & Adventure Gear Package. Valued at over $3,000.

We celebrate World Refrigeration Day on 26th June and National HVAC Tech day on 22nd June. Both celebrate how great our industry is and we encourage people to look at refrigeration and air conditioning as a career.

The 2023 Wallie Askew Memorial Workskills Competition and Regional challenges are being run in July. We would like to thank Realcold who is the main sponsor and CCCANZ the dinner sponsor for 2023 for this worthwhile apprentice industry competition.

I stand down as IRHACE President at the upcoming AGM and move to Immediate Past President. Thanks to the current and past board members for their support and hard work over the past two years, which has had its challenges while IRHACE continues to do drive change through good practices and good governance for our industry.

HAPPY

22nd JUNE 2023

HVAC Technicians work in all spaces they brave every obstacle, deal with extreme conditions and they help you reduce your carbon footprint.

#NationalHVACTech Day #IRHACE

Fire Dampers you can rely on.

A-GAS PRODUCT RELEASE/UPDATE

Fast and Easy On-Site Reclaim Cylinder Exchange Service

Responsibly managing used and unwanted refrigerant plays an important role in reducing the risk of high global warming potential (GWP) refrigerant gas being leaked to atmosphere.

A-Gas Rapid Exchange® is a free on-site refrigerant reclaim cylinder exchange service that helps businesses in New Zealand to conveniently manage their waste refrigerant. It is a 100% free service with no cylinder deposit fees, no freight costs and no sign-up fee. Businesses are supplied with free quality reclaim cylinders, and when full, A-Gas will exchange them with empty, vacuumed and certified cylinders.

Through the fast and easy A-Gas Rapid Exchange® Service, customers simply contact the A-Gas customer service team to schedule for their full reclaim cylinders to be collected. A qualified A-Gas technician will come to the customer’s site and analyse the contents of their reclaim cylinders using Neutronics Refrigerant Analysis equipment. A report identifying refrigerant type, weight and purity will be produced and A-Gas will pay the customer 100% of their gross Hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) refrigerant weight*.

Key Benefits

• Receive competitive buy-back rates for used and unwanted refrigerant*

• 100% free service - no cylinder deposit fee, no freight costs, no sign-up fee

• We come to the customer’s site – save time and costs

• Used and unwanted refrigerant is responsibly managed, preventing any potential leaks of harmful refrigerant

Here’s

To sign up or for further information visit agas.com/nz or call 0800 992 427 (freecall).

Diagram 1: Fast and easy on-site reclaim cylinder exchange service

GREENHOUSE GASES

The hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) widely used in refrigeration have extremely high Global Warming Potentials (GWP). When equipment such as walk-in chillers and refrigeration cabinets have leaks or failures the refrigerant gas is lost to the atmosphere, contributing to the effects of climate change.

Look after your refrigerants by getting advice from qualified engineers on maintenance schedules, and make sure that all service people use the IRHACE Code of Practice.

You can check if a HVAC&R technician’s certification is up to date. Go to License search and ask for their certificate number and surname.

Under the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS) the cost of refrigerants is increasing with some types are being phased out. Replace systems with a high Global Warming Potential (GWP) refrigerant with low GWP gases such as C02 (R744), propane and ammonia (R717).

These fact sheets provide an overview of the key elements of safe operation for flammable refrigerant-based systems an introduction to the pathways, plans and processes towards a new cooling environment.

Sources: Genless.govt.nz, https://genless.govt.nz/for-business/on-site/use-efficient-equipment/ refrigeration/ IRHACE, https://www.irhace.org.nz/uploads/COP_Refrigerant_handling_2007_Part_1.pdf CCCANZ, https://www.cccanz.org.nz/resources/Flammable-Refrigerants-Fact-Sheets/ RLNZ, https://www.rlnz.org.nz/w/rl/courses/

Three ways to ensure your equipment operates efficiently all year round

Maintenance program

Regular servicing ensures units, filters, grilles and coils are free from dirt, dust, bacteria and grease.

Qualified companies

CCCANZ companies maintain high standards to provide quality service to clients and are joined in a common purpose towards the respectability of their trade.

System assessment

Talk to a CCCANZ company as to whether it’s better to replace, rather than repair an asset nearing the end of its lifecycle.

NZS3910 AND OTHER NEWS

What is NZS 3910 all about?

NZS 3910 provides a standard form of general conditions of contract for incorporation into construction contract documents. It enables Principals, Engineers, and Contractors to quickly establish contractual arrangements that deliver a wide variety of building and civil engineering projects. Public consultation has gone live, and you can access the consultation until 30/6/2023 on the StandardNZ consultation hub, https://consultations.standards.govt.nz/

Commercial Ice Makers

EECA is consulting on policy options to introduce Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) for commercial ice makers, Source MBIE

eInvoicing gaining momentum

Do you trade with large business and government? IRD reports that each month the updated list of eInvoicing registered businesses is published on the eInvoicing website. Your trading partners will be looking for you – are you on the list? Check the list

2022 Building Code Consultation

MBIE is amending the acceptable solutions and verification methods to support plumbing and drainage work. These changes are the latest in a series of continuous improvements to ensure the Building Code compliance pathways for the plumbing sector are fit for purpose and up to date. Read more on hollow-core floors, lead in plumbing products, plumbing and drainage and protection from fire.

Aquanex In-line design, a revolution in heat pump water heater application.

Aquanex in-line design is revolutionising the way heat pump water heaters are applied. Through adapting an integrated whole system design ethos Temperzone solutions deliver comfort and convenience that is more cost effective, efficient and reliable.

visit www.temperzone.com

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF SLOWING DOWN THE FAN DURING THE OFF-CYCLE?

Welcome to our ‘energy savings series’ where we use monitored data of actual HVAC sites to provide insights into energy and carbon emission savings strategies in HVAC applications.

By monitoring the HVAC services of an Australian retail outlet with humidity control, we were able to measure the effective change in energy consumption as a result of the system utilising a lower fan speed during the unit’s off cycle.

In this study, we have aggregated historical system data on a 210kW Temperzone rooftop package unit. This series of unit comes standard with plug-and-play functionality programmed within the onboard unit controller enabling intuitive system operation to maintain space temperature and humidity setpoints. The unit controller software is programmed and maintained in-house and comes pre-programmed with several advanced features, a particular feature is the ‘No Load - Fan offset’ function, when active this enables the reduction of the airflow delivery volume based on the customers’ requirements.

The ‘No Load - Fan offset’ is activated during the unit’s off cycle when the room conditions are within the dead band. This feature is particularly useful for 24/7 operational sites or sites that experience peak demands seasonally but not throughout the year.

The retail outlet this unit services utilises the fan offset strategy to maximize energy savings while providing minimum airflow requirements. After analysing the data over a 12-hour period, we observe a very positive result. It is clear the strategy is effective as the room conditions are balanced during the off cycle, it would not be unexpected if the temperature and humidity within the space increased steadily, however, the unit efficiently manages itself within the parameters of the set conditions and the results show 5 hours where the unit is effectively running with a reduced airflow delivery.

The outcome of slowing the fans down during the off-cycle decreased the input power by 87%, lowering the airflow from 10,000 l/sec to 4,750 l/sec. This resulted in a dramatic decrease in consumed power from a set design of 12.4 kWh, reduced down to 1.6 kWh. In this particular use case, if you were to factor in 5 hours of ‘No Load – Fan offset’ operation per day for 12 months, at a tariff of 10 cents/kWh, the savings would equate to $2,019 over the year

Small energy-saving opportunities also contribute towards achieving wider business carbon reduction goals. Considering the carbon emission factor from energy generation*, we observe that this unit would prevent 22.2 tonnes of C02 emissions annually from energy generation due to the use of the ‘No Load – Fan offset’ function.

Talk to us about selecting the right product for the right application. Our team of passionate and enthusiastic individuals offer advice and support on all our product lines and can recommend the best control strategy or system setup tailored to any application. You may also choose to have an expert attend the site to start up the equipment, and also train your staff to ensure effective project delivery.

* Carbon Positive Australia Emissions Calculator

HOW DOES INDOOR AIR QUALITY (IAQ) IMPACT FIT-FOR-PURPOSE ENVIRONMENTS?

Every building has a purpose. It also has a set of factors that affect whether it meets that purpose. For example, a school that is fit for purpose encourages mental alertness in students and teachers. A hospital needs to be clean and comfortable. A data centre requires stable temperature and humidity levels.

Across all buildings, one of the most vital factors often overlooked is Indoor Air Quality. IAQ has a significant impact on indoor environments, impacting on occupant wellbeing and how well the building delivers on its purpose.

In this four-part series we look at the impact of poor IAQ on wellbeing (part one), the current standards for IAQ (part two), measuring what matters (part three), and the opposing forces of energy efficiency and improving building health (part four).

What is the impact of poor IAQ on wellbeing

Between home, work or study, and other shared environments such as supermarkets and cafes, people typically spend 70-90% of their time indoors. It can be even higher for infants, the elderly and the chronically ill. That means IAQ affects us all daily.

If IAQ is poor, it can impact people on varying levels. Nuisance and discomfort complaints are the more obvious signs, typically triggered from being too hot or too cold or from sitting in a draft. These typically result in calls to service companies to adjust temperatures or airflows to remedy these issues – with varying degrees of success…

However, some issues are less obvious, with significant but more subtle impacts, such as complaints of stuffiness. Complaints of this nature usually indicate a lack of fresh (outdoor) air required for ventilation purposes and will impact a person’s cognitive abilities.

When we’re in an indoor environment designed for work or study, we rely on our cognitive abilities to think, focus, be creative and mentally process information. But all our cognitive skills suffer if indoor air quality is poor due to a lack of ventilation.

Our attention span is reduced, our memory function is reduced and our ability to use logic and reasoning are impaired. Poor IAQ can even reduce our ability to process the information we hear or read, reducing comprehension, as well as reducing our creativity levels so valued by many organisations.

If indoor air quality is allowed to fall even further, it can impact on health, triggering headaches, dizziness, fatigue, skin or eye irritations and respiratory difficulties. In more extreme situations it can even lead to Sick Building Syndrome, where poor IAQ triggers these kinds of symptoms in a significant number of occupants whenever they spend time in the building.

Often the source of these building related illnesses is hard to pinpoint. It could be a specific indoor air contaminant or pollutant. But because it usually can’t be seen, it will often be left unremedied.

Of course, the potential build-up and spread of biological contaminants such as viruses and bacteria have been of particular concern over the past couple of years.

What are the real costs of poor IAQ?

While the impact of IAQ is felt directly by occupants, it has a flow on effect on the building’s purpose. Over a building’s life cycle, the impact of poor IAQ becomes a significant and very real cost.

Research from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers has estimated that it can cause a 2-16% decrease in productivity and increased absenteeism in commercial buildings. In schools, it can lower test performance by 20% and in hospitals, it can delay discharges, which has wide ranging impacts on the efficiency and cost of healthcare.

This shows that occupant wellbeing is not just a ‘nice to have’ — it’s essential to a productive environment and a healthy, fully-functioning building.

Source: Jacksons Engineering, Lance Jimmieson (M.IRHACE), https://www.jacksons.co.nz/how-does-indoor-air-quality-impact-fit-for-purpose-environments-part-one/

New Zealand’s premier event for the Building, Construction, Design and Architectural industries.

20-21 June 2023

Auckland Showgrounds

 Connect with peers, discover new suppliers, products, and stay ahead of the curve with the latest trends and innovations.

 Over 200 local and international exhibitors

 Hundreds of new and alternative product solutions

 Two full days of seminars, keynote speakers and live demonstrations

 Earn LBP and CPD Points

 Trade deals, prizes and much more!

Exhibiting the latest in heating, cooling, and air quality control technologies. Delegates can network with industry experts, experience interactive demos, and learn about advanced solutions from top manufacturers and suppliers.

 Don’t Miss HVAC&R Hub

A3 REFRIGERANT AWARENESS

There are many resources within the HVAC&R industry and RLNZ recommends ASHRAE as one of these sources.

A World of HVAC&R Information in Your Pocket

The ASHRAE Pocket Guide serves as a user-friendly, offline reference for engineers without easy access to complete ASHRAE Handbook volumes. Includes topics: Air-Conditioning Load Data, Climatic Design Conditions for Selected Global Locations, Commissioning, Environmentally Responsible Design, HVAC Systems and Equipment, Refrigerants, Ventilation and general information such as system design criteria, air-conditioning formulas, sizing formulas for heating/cooling, and units and conversions plus much more.

Source: https://www.ashrae.org/technical-resources/bookstore/ ashrae-pocket-guide-for-air-conditioning-heating-ventilation-refrigeration-10th-ed

Update on New Refrigerants Designations and Safety Classifications

Standard 34, Designation and Safety Classification of Refrigerants, establishes a simple means of referring to common refrigerants rather than by their chemical name, formula or trade name. The purpose of the Fact Sheet is to provide an update on ASHRAE standards for refrigerants and to introduce the new refrigerants that have been awarded an <<R>> number over the last few years and introduced into the international market.

Source: https://www.ashrae.org/file%20library/technical%20resources/refrigeration/unep---ashrae-factsheet--english----april2023.pdf

Celebrate our industry on 26th June 2023!

Refrigeration is at the centre of modern life, and it enables our lives to live, travel and work. Our industry provides heating solutions such as heat pumps to keep people warm and cool; food is stored and delivered via refrigeration; we travelled to the moon with temperature-controlled machines ; without refrigeration we wouldn’t be able to deliver vaccines chilled; we even play sports on ice and snow with the help of refrigeration.

WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

Women make up only about 30% of the manufacturing workforce and only 7% of the engineering workforce. In 2022, women only make up 12% of learners studying manufacturing and engineering. Increasing participation rates among women has the potential to make the biggest impact on addressing the workforce gap.

Women, Maori and Pacific Peoples are under-represented in managment roles.

One business reported that only 19% of their employees are female (including office staff). Given the capacity and capability constraints in the workforce – attracting and engaging more females to the industries could have a material impact.

Source, Hanga-Aro-Rau

https://www.hangaarorau.nz/assets/Uploads/Hanga-Aro-Rau-COVID-19-FinalResearch-Report-Final-v1.0-10Oct2022_lr2.pdf

see us on Stand 2042

Supporting all women in HVAC&R at all stages of their careers. Women in IRHACE aims to deliver messages through social media, webinars, technical education and including female speakers in our events framework.

IRHACE invited Samantha McNaughton to speak at the upcoming HVAC&R Hub event hosted by BuildNZ. Breaking the barriers – women in industry is on Tuesday 20 June from 2.00 to 2.45pm and we welcome all women in our industry to attend this FREE event.

Milieu Climate allows you to design your environment by controlling your air conditioning system whilst monitoring everything from air quality and temperature to lighting levels, sound, humidity, pressure, and motion.

ZoneMate allows you to control up to 8 zones with thread radio for future proofed technology and cloud monitoring for industry leading support.

FEATURES

• 7 built-in sensors –Temp., Humidity, Air Quality, Motion & more

• Portable Hub with Inbuilt wi-fi module and mobile app

• Easy to use setup wizard to guide through configuration

• On/Off Timer & 7 Day scheduler with advanced functionality

• Google and Alexa smart home integration and voice control

• Thread radio technology for future integration with IoT devices

A smart refrigeration solution for smarter field commissioning

Controllers

ZoneMate and MilileuClimate are compatible with most brands of air conditioners.

iJW is the new range of CAREL controllers for refrigeration, aimed at refrigeration engineers operating in the distribution channel.

iJW has been designed to simplify the replacement and configuration of the controller on display cabinets, bottle coolers, plug-ins, chest freezers and in many other applications.

New Features with iJW

●Wide operating voltage range tolerance from 90 to 264Vac

●Compressor safety protection against high or low power supply voltages

●Zero voltage relay switching

●In-built BMS serial card for Modbus RS485 connectivity

●Dedicated parameters for relative and absolute alarms

●Simple IO configuration via preset wizard codes for each series

For accessing the complete set of advanced parameters and functions, download free Carel Applica App from App store or Google play which can connect with the iJW controller over Bluetooth.

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS

We welcome our new members to both IRHACE and CCCANZ.

For IRHACE there are four membership types: M.IRHACE by Qualification, M.IRHACE by Experience, Associate and Affiliate. If you do not quality for M.IRHACE or Associate membership you are able to join as an Affiliate member.

CCCANZ has two company membership types of Member and Affiliate and membership star ts from as little as $500 annually.

NEW MEMBERS

IRHACE MEMBERSHIP MILESTONES

10 YEARS

20 YEARS

Stephen Marr

Bryan Hehir

Steve Mendoza

Daniel O’Meara John Jenkins

Jonathan O’Brien

Kevin Cudmore

Edward Noven

AEG 18V multi-tool from Bunnings and a AEG drill kit

Nic Lyttle

GB Teat

WALLIE ASKEW MEMORIAL WORKSKILLS COMPETITION

Our 2022 finalists from the Wallie Askew Memorial Workskills

Competition have been busy utilising their prize vouchers.

“I used this money to purchase a new drill driver set to replace my 5+ year old set. Thank you all again for an awesome comp, and the opportunities that have come from it!”

Blake Wilkins Perfect

Air

Fluke 375 FC Clamp Meter Bluetooth from ASI Automation

Jacob Newton Aquaheat

CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (CPD) PROGRAMME FOR HVAC&R INDUSTRY

Attain your CPD points with IRHACE by attending Technical Education

IRHACE ONLINE LIBRARY

RANGE FROM 1 TO 2 POINTS

• Designing with Ventilation Louvres – 1 point

• Expansion work recovery - 1 point

• Air Quality ventilation and Covid 19 - 1 point

• The application of reinforcement for vapour compression cycle control - 1 point

• Flammable refrigerants in an airconditioning application - 1 point

• Commercial Kitchen Exhaust Systems - 1 point

*To earn CPD points you must be an IRHACE member