Surely those who have companies in any segment, industrial or commercial, are experts in their field. But when it comes to air conditioning your company's facilities, there are many mistakes made. The first: use minisplit. by María Cecilia Hernández Ocampo
Guaranteeing the comfort of the employees of a company and with it its productivity, depends on many factors between psychological, physical and health. The layout and location of workstations, pressure and workload, or what concerns this article: an adequate temperature and excellent indoor air quality, are determining factors when it comes to having a healthy and comfortable work environment and, at the same time, saving operating costs and lowering energy consumption. With this in mind, experts in the field have agreed that using minisplit equipment for the business, industrial and commercial segments where more than five people work, is not the most recommended. Despite this, many entrepreneurs or administrators, due to ignorance or indifference, make the decision to install them, without considering the serious consequences that this could entail. In all spaces where there is a certain density of occupation of people it is essential to have a high level of outdoor air renewal and this feature, so important, is not provided by a team of this category. As explained by Fabio Clavijo, president of the Colombia Chapter of Ashrae and former president of the Colombian Association of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (Acaire), there are many reasons why minisplit equipment should not be used in these segments. One of these reasons, says Clavijo, is that these units do not have a ventilation system, they only recirculate the air, which generates that during the time of occupation the level of oxygen concentration in the occupied spaces is depleted, producing numbness in people, decrease in brain activity and, consequently, loss of performance in work activities. "To work well a person needs a certain level of renewal or injection of oxygen from the outside to recover the oxygen consumed through breathing and avoid occupational health problems and impairment of work capacity," says Clavijo. This should be enough argument for those who plan to install a conditioning system based on minisplit equipment, however, there is still more. Some countries have regulated
Since its development, this system has been focused on the residential market, says Javier Páez, sales manager of the distributor channel of the company Climate Solutions. Páez maintains that the most advisable thing for both small and medium-sized companies is to use ducted equipment, whether splits or fan-coils. Well, like Clavijo, he believes that these offer greater advantages of air conditioning and better meet the needs that arise in this type of spaces. Although the initial investment to be made in a minisplit is much lower compared to a pipeline system, in the long run the savings may not be as significant for several reasons. Among them, "for the amount of equipment that must be installed to air condition a large space, for the energy consumption that this represents and, for the public health consequences for those who are exposed to regular air conditioning conditions," says the president of the Panamanian Association of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (Apayre), Pedro Vásquez McKay. In fact, Panama is one of the few countries that have strict regulations for air conditioning and ventilation (RAV) equipment, and a special chapter for the use of minisplit equipment in the commercial, business and industrial segments. In the RAV it is clearly and literally indicated that "For not having adequate ventilation for the renewal of ambient air, the use of separate mini equipment (minisplit) in environments for public use or private offices and commercial premises with occupation for more than five (5) people is prohibited, unless an adequate ventilation system is provided, to supply the amount of fresh air in accordance with the provisions of this regulation." Other provisions are made there: "The window type or minisplit type air conditioning system must have only one air conditioning equipment for each room or room, if the thermal load does not exceed 10.5 Kw. (36,000 BTUH or 3 Tons) and will only require the presentation of an electrical plan. Otherwise, the design of a qualified professional in Mechanical Engineering or a branch of engineering suitable in this specialty will be required". To complement Pedro Vásquez McKay comments that according to the RAV if an installation of an equipment like this is going to be carried out, a ventilation system must be designed, separately, to comply with the air replacement requested by the same regulation.
Health and energy efficiency
According to Fabio Clavijo, the poor ventilation of a space in which people, machines and computer equipment converge directly impacts human health. "If suddenly there is an employee with a level of nasal congestion, flu or lung involvement, it can generate transmission to all the people who are in that space. Generating complicated occupational health problems for a company to handle," emphasizes the Ashrae representative. Sometimes medicine can be worse than the disease, because many entrepreneurs mistakenly think that to solve the problem of air conditioning they must install more than one minisplit unit to serve several areas simultaneously. This can lead to a situation of energy inefficiency, "there is no efficient way to manage that amount of equipment. For this, there are centralized solutions, which have intelligent control systems and allow programmable and electronic management to improve energy performance, "says Clavijo. Buy it, use it and throw it away
According to the experts consulted, another important reason not to implement minisplit in the segments in question, has to do with the economic issue. Although these equipment are an economical solution in the short term, it must be taken into account that they have a shorter useful life, about three years. That is to say that after that time they will have to be renewed, which implies a new capital investment. On the other hand, a commercial team can perfectly last between 10 and 15 years in operation and will adequately meet the commercial, business and industrial needs, from all points of view: operational, energy efficiency and air renewal.
"Surely in some residential or light commercial applications, a minisplit equipment could be adequate or sufficient, I do not want to say that they are not useful. What is an urgent issue is that when they are installed they do so with an advanced technical criterion so that the decision is correct, the operation is adequate and does not negatively impact, "says Clavijo. Under this perspective, it is possible to consider the "pocket" factor before making decisions when it comes to installing the air conditioning and ventilation system of a company. A step taken lightly could be very serious for a company. - New minisplit technologies -
As reported by Javier Páez, sales manager of the distributor channel of the company Climate Solutions, the most recent technology in the minisplit industry is the variable refrigerant flow (Inverter). It uses variable speed compressors that adjust their capacity according to the user's demand at all times. The result is a very energy-efficient system, which consumes the minimum electrical energy necessary to meet the needs of the user, without sacrificing comfort or performance. For Fabio Clavijo, president of the Colombia Chapter of Ashrae, "in the minisplit industry two efforts are being seen in the short term: one is to improve the energy performance of the equipment, there are several manufacturers in the United States and in Europe very concerned about improving their this factor and using refrigerants that are friendly to the environment". - Advantages of the Inverter system -
Investing technology offers significant benefits. But before mentioning them, it must be clarified that this system consists of an electronic device that regulates or controls the speed of revolutions of a motor, voltage, frequency and current. This system is applicable to water pumps, air conditioners and compressors. Some of the most important advantages are:
- Automatic temperature control depending on weather and space conditions.
- There is no need to repeat the boot and pause cycles to adjust the system.
- As a result, much less energy is consumed (between 25% and 50% less).
- It is a much quieter, more efficient and faster equipment.
