Dubai, UAE, 27 August 2018: There has been strong acceptance of innovative products around the world. A trend that Giorgio Elia, Vice President, UTC CCS Middle East, said can also be observed in the GCC region, where governments are leading initiatives related to energy-efficiency regulations, which direct manufacturers to use innovative solutions in new products. “Many countries in the Middle East have steadily improved and implemented minimum energy-efficiency standards by adopting the latest technology trends in response to a growing demand for energy efficiency,” he said. “New regulations and standards have in turn led to an increased demand for higher efficiency air conditioning solutions from end-users, consultants and contractors in the region.”

Further elaborating on this point, Elia pointed to how chillers, historically evaluated based on cooling capacities, are now evaluated on system part load value, or SPLV, which looks at efficiency during actual operation versus at a theoretical point. “Upcoming projects in the GCC region are focusing on higher SPLV plants in an attempt to lower annual energy consumption,” Elia said.

Additionally, Elia pointed to the growing popularity of District Cooling plants across the region “because they provide higher efficiency and diversity when compared to air-cooled systems”. Thermal energy storage systems, he said, are also being implemented to shift demand from peak to off-peak, which is mostly nighttime.

Elia said that Carrier is committed to making sustainability the core of its engineering philosophy and providing energy-efficient products at competitive prices. “We are starting to see our HVAC customers look at the total cost of ownership rather than the transactional product price,” he said, “which we expect will drive increased demand for innovative energy-efficient products.”

Hannah Jo Uy is Assistant Editor at Climate Control Middle East magazine. She may be contacted at hannah@cpi-industry.com