Dubai, UAE, 17 July 2018: The world is on the verge of a crisis with the demand for refrigeration and air conditioning almost overrunning global warming targets, Araner said. Urbanisation is surging in the developing world, as real estate investments crop up everywhere to cater for the growing populations, the company said. Araner stressed that we must pursue solutions that enhance efficiency in the industry. A number of factors including installation costs, maintenance costs, climatic conditions and cost of fossil fuels influence the choice of a cooling technology for real estate, Araner said.

According to Araner, the problems are:

1. Poor energy efficiency: The largest operating cost in a real estate building is energy and commercial real estate organisations have to become more energy efficient.
2. Environmental degradation: Uncontrolled use of energy in the sector for cooling has adverse effects on the environment. Estimates show that a fifth of annual greenhouse gas emissions in the United States are a result of energy consumption in the real estate industry.
3. Unreliability: Conventional cooling for real estate has a problem of reliability. Older and standalone systems (over one decade old) are usually unreliable for large scale cooling.

The following new technologies are the best solutions to these issues, Araner said.

District Cooling:  Compared to a decentralised system, Araner’s district cooling solution offers the following benefits to the real estate industry, the company said:

• Less energy consumption
• Reduced capital expenditure and overall energy infrastructure
• Increased safety and comfort
• Enhanced sustainable development
• Enhanced urban landscape and real estate net space
• Reduced maintenance and operational costs

Thermal Energy Storage (TES): TES for buildings may only have received much attention in recent years, but it has been in existence for several decades, Araner said, explaining that it is available in different technologies.

TES as used for comfort cooling and in this sector is either passive or active in nature, Araner said. The company is known for chilled water storage tanks that shift the energy demand, Araner further said. The system produces chilled water or ice at night to be used for cooling during the day; in this way, the chiller doesn’t have to operate during the day, Araner added.

TES for real estate can further be categorised as full storage and partial storage, Araner said. In full storage, the system satisfies all the peak cooling loads, while partial storage refers to cases where only part of the peak cooling loads are covered, Araner further said.

Benefits of TES: With TES, facility managers can eliminate the peak demand or at least minimise it, Araner said. TES installation is also a route towards Green Building Certification, leading to more benefits, Araner further said. Some of these benefits are higher resale value, increased occupancy and reduced operating costs, Araner added. According to Araner, other benefits of TES include improved indoor environment, higher utility load factor and avoiding noise and chiller vibrations.