Our industry has had to overcome different situations that distort the work of engineers. For that reason, professionalism, training and good practices must always be present in every project.
by Camilo Botero*
When air conditioning systems of a certain magnitude are proposed, aspects that affect our image always appear and to a certain extent give us a bit of "bad reputation", and although sometimes it is applicable for designs, assemblies and maintenance poorly done or poorly executed, most of the times they are due to aspects related to physics and specifically with the transfer of heat and mass through air (the most critical), water or coolants.
Apart from these aspects, air conditioning systems represent an important investment value for both comfort projects and industrial applications (being here less impactful), and finally the cost of energy associated with their operation is considerable; for example, in supermarkets, the electricity bill for air conditioning and refrigeration in hot climates can be up to 80% of the total, as well as in candy factories and pharmaceutical laboratories can exceed 60%.
The aesthetic aspect is also a factor of annoyance for the end user and especially for the architects, which is added to the bulkiness of the equipment, ducts and pipes that require considerable spaces to locate them and to conduct these duct and pipe systems.
On one occasion, a dear architect told me: "Engineer, and you are going to put me so horrific on the terrace?", and I replied: "If you want air conditioning and extractions of bathrooms and kitchens, you have no choice".
Then I explain the matter in terms of mass and energy balances, first and second law of thermodynamics, psychrometry, fluid mechanics, cooling cycle, and especially for the case of air, the issue of its low density and specific heat that makes its potential for energy transport very low; He listened to me with courtesy and patience but said, "Well engineer, there's no choice, but at least let those 'things' look as ugly as possible there."
Other aspects that contribute to the "bad reputation" are associated with the sick building syndrome such as the spread of bacteria in offices and environments heated for comfort, bad odors, humidity, cold air gusts or stagnation, false sky fouling at the exit of air diffusers, and in the case of hospital facilities and pharmaceutical laboratories infections and infections by cross-flow of rooms, for example, of infectious diseases with other areas that are not adequately protected with adequate pressure differentials and that remain even with door openings.
Many of these cases are attributable to air conditioning (but not all), due to design, assembly or O&M (Operation and Maintenance) problems; other cases do not and are those that correspond to medical procedures or inadequate laboratories. The National University of Colombia has done research in this regard and the conclusions are truly very worrying.
With properly designed systems, subject to good engineering practices with compliance with the regulations and judicious standards that exist for it (ASHRAE), with the approval of those regulations by the state (case of the RITE version for Colombia that has been two years in four ministries, sleeping the dream of the just), with impeccable assemblies and adhering to these designs and of course with O & M, performed by qualified and certified personnel, "ideal" air conditioning systems can be achieved as described in the previous column.
From the above it is concluded that our trade must be carried out by engineers and technicians of excellence, who know the state of the art of the industry, who abide by the regulations and standards in force, who have a passion for quality and feel proud of their projects and functions, that comfort or compliance with the specifications for a given application, the rational use of energy, the care of the environment and indoor air quality are its primary concern.
Promoting innovation
In the AHR Expo show sponsored by ASHRAE and that this year was in New York, it was said that 60% of the exhibiting companies would bring some kind of innovation and really it was, but nothing that one could say like "here is the 'ipad' of air conditioning and refrigeration!".
AsHRAE's March 2014 magazine brings in its editorial a mention of the awards that the association makes to the most innovative technologies, which it has been doing since 1981, to promote such innovation, and as the president in charge said at that time, Charles Sepsy: "The award is part of the continuous effort to promote and honor contributions of ASHRAE members in the area of energy conservation and promote the dissemination of these technologies."
In our Latin American region we should promote awards of this nature for air conditioning and refrigeration, with the aim of encouraging creativity.
On the other hand, I am reading the book Mentefactura, by Juan José Goñi Zabala, about the change of productive model, where it is said that: "Innovating on the intangibles of work and the company is a priority". This book was written in 2012 in Spain, during the economic crisis of that country that has been going on for several years, which has forced them to innovate and that this creativity must be to solve current problems such as those mentioned in this column, without delay, since crises come because we are not able to solve them with vision and in time.
This change towards innovation requires a collective commitment of the entire guild and for it to spread it is necessary to know that the vision of what is done daily is of very high transience, that it must be changed by assuming risks and that from the gravity of shared problems the collective energy is generated for ambitious solutions and affirm: too much information clouds knowledge and too much knowledge impairs creativity.
It must go beyond the conventional in the way of assimilating the initiatives to make radical changes in our day to day, incorporating a state of mind towards the new, and the food of innovation are ideas without a priori application and important unsolved problems, and nothing is more opposed to innovation than isolation.
"There is nothing in the world as powerful as an idea that has reached its time," said Victor Hugo, and air conditioning has come to that time to innovate without any apology or delay.
Characteristics of an innovative region
The book brings an account of fundamental aspects that an innovative region must have that I allow myself to list below (sic):
1.High level of investment in R + D + i (Research + Development + Innovation).
2.Highly skilled workforce and labour mobility.
3.Advanced technology companies in a specialty.
4.Continuous training in the company and high valuation of learning.
5.Entrepreneurial culture and risk acceptance.
6.Dynamic and participatory business management models.
7.Specific funding for the new.
8.Efficient and economical public services.
9.Services to companies with advanced technologies.
10.University permeable to changes.
11. Numerous spin-off activities.
12. Professional networking.
13. Active participation of civil society.
Sound like our region is far from innovation? Well, let's all work collectively to change this situation and promote creativity in our trades and technologies!
* Camilo Botero is the current Secretary of the Federation of Ibero-American Associations of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration - FAIAR; he was president of ACAIRE and is president of Camilo Botero Ingenieros Consultores Ltda. He has worked as a teacher in several Colombian universities, guilds and currently in ACAIRE in diploma courses of air conditioning projects, energy efficiency in air conditioning and refrigeration, cogeneration and trigeneration, applied psychometrics, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer and turbomachinery. ([email protected]).
