Andrew Gaved

Andrew Gaved is the editor of U.K.-based Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Magazine. The magazine has a long heritage, having providing information about the cooling industry in its various forms for more than 100 years. Andrew has been editor for the last five years, during which time RAC has built a reputation for its coverage of policy issues and of emerging cooling technology.

Articles by Andrew Gaved

• Hydrogen hopes burn brightly in the UK

  Friday, January 24, 2020

  The U.K. is currently exploring the prospect of one of the most radical transformations to its heating infrastructure for half a century. As the country grapples with a target to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, a variety of trials are underway to investigate whether it is possible to replace the national natural gas "grid" with one that runs on hydrogen. The goal is ultimately to run 100% hydrogen in place of the current methane network, but to start with a 20% blend with natural gas. The 2018 provisional U.K. greenhouse gas statistics show gas combustion in all forms (heating and power) accounted for 50% of the country's carbon emissions.

• F-Gas turns the screw again

  Thursday, January 09, 2020

  This column has reported many times over the years on the progress of the F-Gas regulations, as the legislation seeks to achieve its ultimate goal of reducing refrigerant emissions in Europe. But 2020 marks a significant year for both the legislation and the industry that must comply with it. It is expected to change refrigerant buying habits as the once-ubiquitous R404A disappears from wholesalers' shelves. The F-Gas legislation, now in its second iteration, came into force in 2015 and has put the industry under pressure with its unique combination of restrictions.

• The UK grapples with its low-carbon heating future

  Friday, October 18, 2019

  Whilst the subject of Brexit is weighing heavily on the minds of U.K. politicians, the heating industry has an equally seismic change of culture to deal with — no less than the prospect of wholesale technology change as it bids to build a low-carbon heating infrastructure. One of the last legislative decisions by former Prime Minister Theresa May was to commit the U.K. to "net zero" carbon emissions by 2050. It is accepted by the HVAC industry that such a stiff target cannot be reached without radically changing its technology approach. What the technology approach should be is currently the subject of fierce debate.

• All eyes on ‘very low GWP’ HFOs in the UK

  Thursday, October 10, 2019

  Refrigeration experts in the U.K. have called for the industry to embrace the potential of "lower flammability" hydrofluoro-olefin (HFO) blends, as the F-Gas regulations continue to drive the European market towards lower-carbon solutions — and as the Kigali amendment begins to do the same for the global market. The call has been driven by supermarket giant Asda (part of the Walmart group), which has successfully conducted an in-store installation with the refrigerant R454A, an HFO with a Global Warming Potential (GWP) of 238.

• View from Europe: HVAC and Brexit

  Thursday, September 19, 2019

  As U.S. readers are no doubt aware, the U.K. is still in the throes of trying to leave the European Union, a process we now universally describe in a single word: Brexit. It is not my place here to go into the political machinations that have been going on for the last three years as the country has attempted to negotiate a legal exit from the EU. My purpose, instead, is to report on the challenges that the HVAC industry faces because of the threat of Brexit. What the industry fears is the prospect of a no-deal Brexit.

• Doors on fridges debate heats up again in UK

  Thursday, August 22, 2019

  The debate around whether to make it mandatory to have doors on all display refrigerators in the U.K. has been reignited by a combination of carbon targets and public pressure. While supermarkets in the U.K. have historically been resistant to adding doors to fridges because of fears that they will impact purchasing, the mounting pressure on the U.K. to reduce energy to meet long-term carbon targets has put the subject back on the agenda. However, many merchandisers cling to the belief that the addition of doors to their chiller cabinets will negatively affect the purchase of goods by presenting a "barrier" to browsing.

• Why Brexit planning is making the UK cooling industry hot under the collar

  Thursday, February 28, 2019

  I don't know whether you have noticed, but the U.K. is supposed to be divorcing from the European Union in a month's time. Brexit is nearly upon us. Or is it? The problem is, to quote Donald Rumsfeld, we are very much in the realm of the "known unknowns" when it comes to the details of Brexit. In fact, as I write, we don't even know whether we are going to be leaving Europe as planned on March 29, because there is so little that the various political factions agree on that it seems more likely now that there will be a postponement. But for the cooling industry, there is an additional administrative burden to deal with.

• We have good EU F-Gas regulations, now we need good regulating

  Thursday, October 04, 2018

  At RAC’s recent Cooling Industry Awards, I ended my speech on a bit of a call to arms. The gist of it is that we as an industry deserve the respect of having our F-Gas regulations properly enforced. I am sure you don’t need me to remind you, as I seem to have been writing about it for months, that the EU’s F-Gas regulatory regime has proved quite a tough prospect for the industry, with its combination of HFC phasedown and bans intended to drive the market towards lower-GWP options at quite a pace.

• ‘World first’ boiler scrappage scheme unveiled by London mayor

  Thursday, August 09, 2018

  Whatever else you may have heard; the U.K. isn’t exclusively focused on the machinations of its proposed exit from Europe now. Beyond the constant debate about Brexit options, the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has busy making his own headlines. Although it is on a decidedly smaller scale in policy terms than uncoupling from the EU, Mayor Khan’s unveiling of an upgrade scheme for boilers in the commercial sector and for small businesses does deserve attention.

• The great carbon dioxide crisis in the UK

  Friday, July 20, 2018

  The majority of my recent dispatches have concerned the problems of supply and demand with certain high-GWP HFCs caused by the onward march of the F-Gas regulations. With everyone continuing to worry about the price of the likes of R404A and R410A, it came us quite a shock for the industry to find itself suddenly in the grip of a full-blown carbon dioxide crisis. In the space of a few days, excitable headlines about a "national CO2 shortage" appeared to have created a self-fulfilling prophecy, and the U.K. quickly found itself in short supply of many forms of the gas.

• Developing a sustainable cooling industry for the future

  Friday, June 01, 2018

  The present view from the cooling industry in Europe has something of an air of déjà vu about it. There are tightening markets, and therefore significantly rising costs for higher-GWP refrigerants like R404A. The industry is dealing with general consternation from end-users that they are having to pay more than they forecast even a year or two ago, and mild panic from AC contractors that R410A is no longer available from some wholesalers. These views were all represented, or reported, at RAC’s recent F-Gas Question Time.

• Getting the training right for flammables

  Friday, May 04, 2018

  As any reader of past columns will know, the ongoing mechanism of the F-Gas regulation, with its emphasis on moving the industry to lower-GWP refrigerants via bans and quota reductions, has caused European cooling businesses to do a lot of soul-searching. Now, the urgency of the message appears to be percolating through the industry. But, the advent of lower-GWP refrigerants also brings with it serious longer-term considerations. The fact that the majority of alternatives in the future will have some degree of flammability has given rise to concerns that the current engineering base does not have the right skills to handle them.

• Europe reviews F-Gas success

  Friday, March 16, 2018

  The last time I wrote to you, I was full of tales of the pain being felt by the cooling industry in Europe as the F-Gas regulations started to squeeze the market for higher-GWP refrigerants via its combination of restrictions on supply and bans on use. Now I can tell you that the European Commission has confirmed that such pain is precisely what it had in mind to drive the European industry towards better solutions for the environment.

• Europe prepares for perfect storm over F-Gas

  Thursday, February 15, 2018

  I promise not to make every dispatch this year an update on the general alarm surrounding the EU F-Gas regulations, but having declared a crisis back in January, I feel duty-bound to keep you abreast of what I believe the TV newsrooms call a developing situation.

• Peering over the edge of the F-Gas cliff

  Friday, January 12, 2018

  Regular readers may recall that when I first started writing about the revised F-Gas regulations, back in 2014, I reported some concern that the combination of bans and proposed phasedown of HFCs risked precipitating supply difficulties if the industry did not transition to lower-GWP refrigerants quickly enough.

• Technology driving construction changes in Europe

  Tuesday, November 07, 2017

  ​One of the defining questions in the European construction industry at the moment is how to reduce time on site. This comes from the logic that the quicker a construction program is completed, the higher the profit margins for the contractors and the quicker the customer can get to making money from whatever use the building is being put to.

• Retailers hold the key to Europe’s F-Gas transition

  Thursday, October 19, 2017

  In previous posts, I have lamented the slow take-up of conversion to lower-GWP refrigerants in Europe and have presented several doom-laden scenarios about what might happen to refrigerant prices and availability if the industry doesn’t get a move on. I thought I would start this one off a bit more positively, and share a new a report that, while also lamenting the slow take-up of conversions, does move on to make some useful suggestions and recommendations for policy action.

• UK getting smarter about energy storage

  Thursday, August 17, 2017

  There has long been a feeling in the U.K. that better management of electricity consumption will pay benefits both for consumers of all scales and for the security and sustainability of the electricity grid itself.

• Upping the ante on indoor air quality

  Thursday, July 27, 2017

  ​The debate around indoor air quality in the UK has gathered momentum in the face of an apparent reluctance by the British government to grasp the connection between indoor and outdoor pollution.

• Preparing the RAC industry for the future

  Thursday, July 13, 2017

  Europe is currently in the throes of dealing with the impact of the F-Gas regulation. The phasedown of HFCs is now starting to gather pace, and as a 37 percent drop in quota looms next year, the price of the higher-GWP refrigerants such as R404A is going through the roof as supply-and-demand principles kick in.

• Campaigners return to put supermarkets under their frosty glare

  Thursday, June 22, 2017

  The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has been, depending on your viewpoint, the conscience of the European retail refrigeration industry or a thorn in its side for the better part of a decade now. The EIA makes no pretense of the fact that it doesn’t think that HFCs represent environmentally responsible refrigeration, and that HFOs aren’t really much better. In the EIA’s world, natural refrigerants are the cooling agents that every supermarket should strive for.

• As F-Gas gathers pace, something must be done

  Thursday, June 01, 2017

  President Donald Trump today announced his decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate change agreement — thus aligning the U.S. for probably the only time ever with Syria and Nicaragua as the only major nations opposed to the 195-nation international commitment to cutting greenhouse gases.

• Pressure set IAQ standards increases

  Friday, May 26, 2017

  The subject of air pollution has been all over the news in the U.K. in recent weeks, driven by the campaigning law group Client Earth's quest to hold the Westminster government accountable for its failure to meet air quality targets.

• Daimler brought blinking into the headlights again

  Thursday, May 04, 2017

  Regular readers of my column will recall regular dispatches on the saga of automotive giant Daimler and its questionable relationship with European refrigerant law, in the shape of the EU Mobile Air Conditioning (MAC) Directive. As of Jan. 1, 2017, all new cars are required to be fitted with a refrigerant with a Global Warming Potential (GWP) under 150, and, now Daimler is back blinking in the headlights. The carmaker has apparently been censured by its own national motor transport authority, the KBA, which last week demanded a recall of some 134,000 of Daimler's models installed with "noncompliant refrigerant."

• Refrigerant firms in bid to prompt customer change

  Thursday, April 20, 2017

  I have written here before about the way the F-Gas regulations in Europe were revised in such a way as to drive uptake of lower-GWP refrigerants, with their combination of production quotas and use bans. I have also written here before about the warnings from those familiar with the supply process.

• A look into the future of the cooling industry

  Thursday, March 30, 2017

  What will the cooling industry look like in 2030? It's a bold question that was asked just before Christmas by the European cooling and ventilation groups EPEE and EVIA. In their collaborative conference named "EUREKA 2016: Heating, Cooling & Ventilation: Sustainable technologies for a better life," they brought experts from around the industry together to imagine what the so-called Generation Z would require from their refrigeration and HVAC — and thus how the industry would need to adapt to create the conditions.

• EU looks at Ecolabel for supermarkets

  Thursday, March 09, 2017

  Readers will know that European supermarkets have made significant progress in recent years in converting their properties to lower-energy systems using lower-carbon refrigerants. Transcritical carbon dioxide systems have rapidly become the technology of choice for supermarket refrigeration managers wanting to reduce the global warming potential of their stores. Now, a European-funded initiative called SuperSmart is hoping to hasten the take-up of greener refrigeration methods by proposing an EU Ecolabel for food retail stores.

• A bid to clear the air in the UK

  Thursday, February 23, 2017

  In the U.K., pollution has become something of a political hot potato, thrusting the HVAC industry's role in raising standards of indoor air quality (IAQ) into the spotlight. Now, campaigners want there to be a new Clean Air Act — the legislation was first brought in 60 years ago in a bid to see off the famous London smog that had created poor visibility and breathing difficulties in the postwar period.

• Spreading the word about clean cold

  Thursday, February 09, 2017

  I have written before about the vital role the cooling industry in Europe believes it can play in developing countries where there is not yet an infrastructure for refrigerating food from "farm to plate." Now, the potential for reducing food wastage through refrigeration at various parts of the so-called cold chain has arguably been clear for a while, but it has taken a combination of factors to give the proponents of the technology the necessary momentum to get their ideas more widely accepted.

• Scotland takes brave approach to climate change

  Thursday, January 26, 2017

  In the U.S., the HVACR industry waits with bated breath to see what new President Donald Trump is going to do with regard to climate change policy — ​and what sort of restrictions he will put on the EPA. Meanwhile, across the Pond in the U.K., the Scottish government has shown a heartening amount of ambition for carbon cutting ​with its own draft climate change plan. In fact, the Scottish plan is so ambitious that it has thrown the spotlight on the U.K. Westminster government's own somewhat-more-conservative carbon cutting plans.

• US braces for climate backlash as 109 countries sign Paris Agreement

  Friday, January 13, 2017

  The election of Donald Trump has provoked alarm among some policymakers and industry bodies who fear he will row back on the emissions reductions they have worked toward in recent months. As climate leaders met last month in Marrakech, Morocco, to officially sign the Paris Agreement on climate change, committing the 109 signatories to firm targets on carbon reduction, U.S. policymakers pointedly used the opportunity to make clear that the nation did not share the president-elect's views.

• Trump question looms as US signs climate pact in Morocco

  Thursday, November 17, 2016

  In fact, the events of the past couple of weeks have put the Brexit uncertainty in the U.K. into context. The multiple questions we might have over our future outside of the European community seem somehow less significant compared with the questions Americans must have over Donald J. Trump.

• Refrigeration industry glimpses its future

  Thursday, November 03, 2016

  I recently attended the Chillventa exhibition in Nuremburg, Germany, which provides a biannual opportunity to see many within the European cooling industry in one place. The fact that so many manufacturers converge on Chillventa provides a rare chance to take the pulse of the industry and allows us to get an idea of what is on the collective minds of the supply chain.

• Global HFC agreement is historic, but now the work really starts

  Thursday, October 20, 2016

  Let me start by saying well done to all those from outside of Europe who were involved in the historic agreement in Kigali, Rwanda, to phase down HFCs around the world. The choice of the word "monumental" by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was an apt one.

• Is EU listening to industry about heating and cooling strategy?

  Thursday, September 15, 2016

  I first wrote back in February about the EU's proposal for a heating and cooling strategy — intended to focus on energy reduction from HVAC in buildings, which account for half of the EU’s energy consumption. Now, seven months later, the strategy has been formally adopted by the European Parliament, which has issued its own report paving the way for member states to look at putting it into practice. But the adoption has drawn a mixed reception from leading cooling and heating groups, who believe some of the fundamental ways our industry can contribute have been overlooked.

• There’s something in the water

  Thursday, August 11, 2016

  The UK should know a thing or two about water. It is an island for a start and, therefore, many of its towns are built by the sea. It has plenty of rivers and lakes — and man-made canals for that matter — and then there is the rain. So it is not too surprising that the potential for harnessing these resources to drive heat pumps is something of real interest to the UK HVAC industry.

• Is a refrigeration revolution in the air?

  Thursday, July 28, 2016

  It is not too often that the world of supermarket refrigeration has played host to major technological change. Apart from the debate over whether chiller cases should have doors on them, recent years have been more about evolution than revolution. But now, retailer Asda, part of the global giant Wal-Mart, has signaled what could be one of the most radical changes in modern retail refrigeration by opting to replace conventional display cases cooled by piped refrigerant with versions cooled by air from a central plant.

• 28 days later: Brexit’s impact on the cooling industry

  Thursday, July 21, 2016

  Well, it's been a turbulent few weeks in the world of UK politics. I choose to title this "28 Days Later," because many who are having to deal with the decision to leave the European Union appear to be wandering around with the same sort of dazed state as the zombies in the film of that name.

• UK votes to leave the EU: Now what?

  Monday, June 27, 2016

  There is an old saying that a week is a long time in politics, which the events of this past seven days have proved sage indeed. I must confess that when I wrote my previous article about the "what ifs" of a Brexit vote in the UK, I didn't really expect it would extend beyond a bit of harmless speculation.

• Will HVACR regulations be affected by Brexit?

  Thursday, June 16, 2016

  On June 23, the U.K. will vote whether or not they want to remain a part of the European Union, and the upcoming vote is bringing to light many political issues and regulations. Whilst many politicians are choosing to focus on the macro-issues of defense, immigration, finance and trade, those of us involved in cooling and heating are considering issues closer to our businesses – namely what would happen to the EU regulatory environment if the U.K. did vote to leave the EU?

• What will it take for transition to lower-GWP refrigerants?

  Thursday, May 26, 2016

  I have written before about how the combination of the forthcoming bans on higher-GWP refrigerants in the European F-Gas regulations and mandated reductions in the HFCs being sold into the EU are in danger of catching the end-users on the hop. Simply put, if customers don't soon convert to lower-GWP options, they will be faced with two troubling possibilities.

• Making an integrated heating and cooling strategy work

  Thursday, May 12, 2016

  We have talked here before of how the European Union's heating and cooling strategy — currently out for consultation — could be a driver for bringing the respective industries closer together for the common good of energy reduction. Now, the European Partnership for Energy and the Environment (EPEE), which represents the heating, cooling and refrigeration industry in Europe, has published a series of recommendations for how it believes the strategy can be made even more effective.

• Cleaning up our act on indoor air quality

  Thursday, April 28, 2016

  ​Almost overnight, air quality has become a big issue in the U.K. Whether it is the government being "sued" by environmental law group Client Earth for again missing its air-quality targets, or the prime minister being forced to defend his government's record on pollution in Parliament, or even Greenpeace activists scaling the landmark Nelson's Column to dramatically draw attention to the issues — air quality seems to be everywhere.

• Increased F-Gas enforcement on the horizon?

  Thursday, April 07, 2016

  The European F-Gas regulations are laudable for their ambition in reducing global warming through control of the refrigerant supply, via a mixture of bans and restrictions on what is placed on the market. However, they have caused some frustration to parts of the cooling industry, because the aims have historically not been backed by enforcement.

• Air quality debate stings UK into action

  Thursday, March 17, 2016

  The air conditioning and ventilation sectors in the United Kingdom are working together in a rare demonstration of cross-industry collective action following a high-profile report condemning Britain's air quality. The groups, led by leading HVAC body the Building Engineering Services Association, are aiming to raise the subject of indoor air quality (IAQ) up the political agenda, in response to the report "Every breath we take" from the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

• High hopes for Europe’s integrated strategy for heating and cooling

  Thursday, February 25, 2016

  Last year, I described the European Commission's desire for an integrated approach to heating and cooling, as it sought to reduce and decarbonize its energy consumption. It has now structured its ideas in the form of the first Europe-wide strategy for optimizing the heating and cooling across commercial and industrial buildings.

• European HFC producers worry about ‘stockpile syndrome’

  Thursday, February 11, 2016

  The ambition of the European Union's F-Gas Regulation to reduce use of higher-GWP HFCs through a combination of bans and production phasedowns has been widely admired — indeed it looks set to be the model for what happens in the U.S. and the rest of the world.

• Cold collaboration in UK’s refrigeration industry

  Thursday, January 28, 2016

  One of the things the cooling industry in Europe often seems to find difficult is collaboration. It is hardly surprising, given that the companies involved are quite small in scale, for the most part. Therefore, they don't necessarily have the resources or the will to work on bigger projects — particularly when it requires working with potential competitors.

• Will justice finally be served on the Mobile Air Conditioning Directive?

  Thursday, January 07, 2016

  We greet the new year with a new development on an old old story — the European Commission's Mobile Air Conditioning Directive. Just before Christmas, the EC announced it would definitely be taking Germany to court for infringing the MAC Directive. Whether this represents the final chapter in the saga remains to be seen, but Germany is being called to account for effectively allowing car manufacturer Daimler to sidestep the requirements of European law for an astonishing three full years.

• Vehicle A/C sector steamed up as UK regulators do a U-turn

  Thursday, November 19, 2015

  The recent decision by global leaders to work toward a coordinated reduction of HFCs has been rightly hailed as historic. Of course, European policymakers and industry alike have the satisfied glow of knowing the reason the nations of the world can now envisage a road map to a global HFC phasedown is because of the template put in place for Europe by the F-Gas regulations.

• Clean cold marches on in Europe

  Thursday, November 05, 2015

  The technology of cryogenic cooling is continuing to live up to its billing of being one of the most disruptive technologies the industry, following a high-profile launch event in London earlier this month. The Birmingham Energy Institute Policy Commission — the organization backing the technology — is proving equally disruptive in the often-low-key world of refrigeration by gaining support among academics, politicians and commercial interest alike for its aim to take a systems approach to low-emission cooling.

• Europe building upon building efficiency

  Thursday, October 15, 2015

  European policymakers and researchers alike are putting their collective minds to the challenge of reducing the energy produced by cooling and heating in buildings. The research funding comes in response to new momentum for efficiency improvement from the European Commission whose Energy Union framework policy aims to transform both energy supply and consumption.

• Staying cool: Clean air versus dirty diesel

  Thursday, October 01, 2015

  This week another report on diesel emissions — and, no, we're not talking about Volkswagen and their test-defeating software. Thankfully, this report is about the potential for liquid nitrogen and cryogenic processes to supplant traditional diesel-driven transport refrigeration units (TRUs) with a zero-carbon emission alternative.

• Pressure mounts on UK cooling industry

  Thursday, September 17, 2015

  I have written before about the sort of pressures the revised F-Gas regulations are putting on the European cooling industry, as F-Gas requirements start to change the way the industry works. Prime among the pressures is the cost and availability of the higher-GWP refrigerants that the program of proposed refrigerant bans and phasedowns aims to ultimately remove from use. These are pressures that will ultimately be faced by the U.S. as it undergoes its own cap and phase-down program.

• Working together on a license to chill

  Thursday, August 27, 2015

  The announcement last month that AHRI and the United Nations Environment Program had agreed on co-operative development of the so-called "refrigerant driving license" (RDL) has been greeted favorably in Europe.

• UK heat pump industry warns ‘technology may die’

  Thursday, August 13, 2015

  ​You may recall I wrote previously about the alarmed reaction of the U.K. HVAC industry to the new government's systematic "ungreening" of its flagship green-building policies. I described how the new Conservative administration had halted funding of the Green Deal program of energy efficiency measures and rowed back from its zero-carbon building targets on the grounds of "saving taxpayers money."

• As UK strips away green policies, HVAC sector takes a big hit

  Thursday, July 30, 2015

  In a time when economic prudence is necessary, the United Kingdom's new Conservative Party government installed in May has wasted no time in taking an ax to policies it believes will be costly to the taxpayer. However, a number of these are high-profile "green" policies, designed to reduce the energy consumption of its building stock. This has seen the new government crossing swords with the HVAC sector, along with the combined might of environmentalists, the construction industry and the renewable energy business.

• European manufacturers get all worked up over energy labels

  Thursday, July 16, 2015

  The cooling and heating industries in Europe have come together in a rare alliance with their compadres in the lighting sector to voice their concerns over the European Commission's latest initiative. The EC's proposal, announced this week, will "recalibrate" its decade-old energy-labeling scheme. But rather than improving consumer-driven energy efficiency, which is the intention, the EC could actually be fostering confusion with its policy, these groups suggest.

• EPEE: Cooling has an essential role to play

  Thursday, June 18, 2015

  The European Union is very focused on energy. Its recent Energy Union framework set out a series of strategic targets designed both to integrate the region's energy production and reduce its consumption. Not surprisingly, the HVACR industry in Europe is keen to play a part in shaping this strategy before it comes to fruition. First out of the blocks is the European Partnership for Energy and Environment.

• F-Gas: Europe must act now or face the consequences

  Wednesday, June 10, 2015

  I wrote last month of the concerns swirling around Europe regarding the F-Gas Regulation, particularly what the HFC phasedown might do to supply and demand and pricing. Since then, we have talked to leading policy experts, end-users and suppliers, and I can report that the consensus is this: The industry must act sooner rather than later, or face the consequences in terms of high prices and refrigerant shortages.

• Uncertainty looms for cooling industry as F‑Gas Regulation takes effect

  Friday, May 22, 2015

  I have written a few times before about the F-Gas Regulation and its effect on the cooling industry in Europe. I make no apologies for my obsession as it is the most radical change for European cooling since CFCs were banned and everyone was encouraged to use HFCs instead. Now, of course, they are being encouraged to ditch those HFCs over time and find something less prone to warming the planet.

• EU sets the bar higher on HFC phasedown

  Thursday, May 07, 2015

  ​The European Union likes to think of itself as something of a pacesetter when it comes to protecting the environment, and it clearly sees its F-Gas Regulation as demonstrating leadership to the rest of the world in the area of refrigerant controls.

• Data centers seek industry’s help with heat recovery

  Thursday, April 23, 2015

  With its exponential growth and apparently unquenchable advance in technology, the data center industry is presenting a unique challenge for the cooling sector. It might be the good kind of challenge, since it naturally foments a climate of innovation, but those supplying the sector certainly need to be on their toes.

• UK making efforts to improve ‘cold chain’

  Thursday, April 02, 2015

  I have written before about the efforts being made by the cooling industry to emphasize the importance of the "cold chain" — the route by which food is distributed from producer to retailer under refrigerated conditions. An improved cold chain, the industry argues, is a win-win globally. In the developed world, it can improve shelf lives and thus reduce food wastage. In the developing world, it can literally save people's lives by reducing the amount of spoilage.

• Carbon dioxide refrigeration gathers pace, even in warmer climates

  Friday, March 20, 2015

  The first transcritical carbon dioxide refrigeration systems in warmer climates are showing impressive energy savings, according to reports from the first trials in southern European supermarkets.

• Strength in ‘Union’ for cooling and heating technologies

  Thursday, February 26, 2015

  The potential influence of the cooling and heating sectors on reducing energy use is well known, but this week's release by the European Commission of its strategy framework for an Energy Union is set to put energy-efficient cooling and heating center stage.

• Remanufacturing offers big benefits to UK cooling industry

  Thursday, February 12, 2015

  The European refrigeration industry in recent years has made good progress in improving its environmental credentials. The rapid uptake by major supermarkets of carbon dioxide refrigeration systems is an obvious example. The increasing use of heat recovery and energy-efficient control protocols, as well as a more systematic approach to leak reduction have also had a beneficial effect on the industry's carbon footprint.

• Policing the regulations: Cooling industry questions enforcement

  Thursday, January 15, 2015

  Laws designed with the fine motives of reducing emissions, reducing energy, etc., are all well and good, but if nothing is done to police them, then they will fall short of their aims. In the U.K., certainly, there is a feeling from within the cooling industry that the regulators must make an example of those who willfully flout the law on matters such as F-Gas.

• UK supermarkets prepare for new cooling landscape

  Wednesday, December 10, 2014

  ​Major supermarkets in the United Kingdom are calling upon the cooling industry to come up with solutions that will help them face a new landscape characterized by tight margins, smaller store footprints and new refrigerant choices imposed by the European F-gas regulations.

• European cooling industry pledges to take action on HFCs

  Thursday, November 13, 2014

  You may recall last month that I drew some comparisons between the work that was going on in Europe and the U.S. over getting to grips with high-GWP refrigerants. At the time, I praised the U.S. for the recent actions on cooling — both the government and agencies for "wielding the stick" in hastening the moves toward lower GWP, and the cooling industry for committing some serious investment to low-GWP projects.

• Suppliers, manufacturers prepare for low‑GWP future in Europe

  Thursday, October 23, 2014

  The big Chillventa show in Nuremberg, Germany, earlier this month is a meeting place for the European cooling industry. Alongside the wealth of innovation that is on display, there is always good debate. Shows such as these are a rare chance to get the senior management from suppliers in one building.

• A tale of 2 continents: US leading the way in cooling regulations

  Thursday, October 02, 2014

  Those of us in the European cooling sector have been looking somewhat jealously at the way U.S. authorities wield the big stick when someone transgresses on cooling matters — particularly regarding the recent settlement between the EPA and Costco.

• View from Europe: Sainsbury’s marches on

  Thursday, September 04, 2014

  In the cooling industry in the United Kingdom, perhaps more than in any country in Europe, it is the supermarkets that are in the forefront of technology change. For instance, most U.K. supermarkets are not particularly fazed by the increased emphasis on low-GWP refrigerants that is being prompted by the EU’s forthcoming F-Gas regulation, because they are already pretty well advanced on their own natural refrigerant strategies. Among the U.K.'s Big Six supermarket brands, Sainsbury's has stood out for its sustainability initiatives and achievements.

• Something in the water for UK heat pumps

  Thursday, August 14, 2014

  The superior efficiency of the heat pump against conventional boiler technology, and its avoidance of reliance on fossil fuels, makes the technology attractive to those tasked with decarbonizing energy. And, of course, the technology utilizes refrigerants, making them of great interest to all within the cooling industry, and for many companies offering a potentially lucrative new market for heating.

• Comply or defy? Enforcement lacking for HVAC regulations

  Thursday, July 31, 2014

  There is a debate raging currently in the European HVAC community about the burden regulations have placed on the operators of cooling and heating equipment. The legislative landscape for the HVAC sector in Europe already pretty punitive — operators have to deal with the various demands of building regulations, emissions controls and energy efficiency goals, which all require compliance and attendant degrees of administration.

• Full of cold air: The potential of cryogenics and liquid air

  Thursday, July 17, 2014

  A coalition of researchers and commercial concerns called the Liquid Air Energy Network has published a report called "Liquid Air on the Highway" detailing how the use of liquid air engine technology could transform transport.

• A greener and cooler cold chain

  Thursday, July 03, 2014

  The cooling industry is sometimes accused of being too focused on advancing the technology in their particular sector whilst overlooking the progress of those further down their supply chain. So we have had the situation for instance, in Europe, where a number of supermarkets are confidently trialling new techniques in carbon dioxide refrigeration or forced air display cabinets, while the food production factories that supply the food they sell are still creaking away on the most basic of refrigeration systems.

• More regulations for cooling industry to accommodate

  Thursday, June 19, 2014

  Readers outside of Europe may be forgiven for thinking that the European policymakers have got something against the cooling industry. Just look at all the legislation and standards-setting underway that are directed squarely at refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pumps.

• Don’t underestimate the impact of the transition away from HFCs

  Thursday, June 05, 2014

  The phasedown of HFCs — ​mandated in Europe by the F-gas regulation — will require a fundamental change in culture for the cooling industry. It is the biggest change in a generation for sure, but perhaps the biggest change the industry has ever seen.

• Pressure mounts for global HFC phasedown after F-gas approval

  Thursday, May 22, 2014

  With publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, the European F-gas regulations have passed officially into law. Now eyes have started to turn toward the rest of the world and what other countries can do to move to a lower-GWP future.

• MAC Directive encounters the French resistance

  Thursday, May 08, 2014

  Only a few short weeks ago, I rashly announced that the protracted arguments over the European Mobile Air Conditioning (MAC) Directive had been pretty much settled. I am afraid I might have underestimated the stubbornness of the French.

• Data centers offer huge potential for cooling industry

  Thursday, May 01, 2014

  The data center sector offers a fantastic challenge for the cooling industry. On the one hand, it is a rapidly-growing sector that has an intense demand for cooling solutions. One oft-quoted estimate by Oracle in 2012 suggests that the volume of data being generated could grow at 40 percent a year to reach 45 zetabyes by 2020.

• F-gas set to change the face of cooling in Europe, the world

  Thursday, April 17, 2014

  ​The Council of the European Union formally adopted the text of the revised F-Gas Regulation this week. This marks the last remaining legal hurdle for the new regulations, and once the translation work is done for all European Union member states, it will pass into EU law, taking effect Jan. 1, 2015.

• The View from Europe: End of the road?

  Thursday, March 27, 2014

  Is it the end of the road for the automotive refrigerant rebels? Well, after the better part of 18 months of claim and counter-claim between those who believe the HFO refrigerant R1234yf is inherently unsafe and those who don't, we have as close to a definitive decision on the subject as we are probably going to get.

• The View from Europe: Supermarkets showing a natural confidence

  Thursday, March 06, 2014

  The supermarket sector in Europe has long been viewed as a driver of change in the world of refrigeration. European supermarkets are often large companies or co-operatives, which provides a naturally dominant position to all their supply chains. But arguably more than any other large companies, food retailers are constantly face-to-face with their customers, as well as their shareholders.

• The View From Europe: Fridge doors debate heats up

  Thursday, February 20, 2014

  The so-called "doors on fridges debate" has been a constant and at times controversial discussion in the United Kingdom. In the last three or four years, it has often pitted supermarket refrigeration engineers against their retail merchandising colleagues.

• The View from Europe: MAC brings out the knife

  Thursday, January 30, 2014

  After over a year of stalemate, the European Commission appears to have finally run out of patience with carmaker Daimler over its defiant refusal to use the HFO refrigerant R1234yf in its new cars. EC industry minister Antonio Tajani recently announced that the Commission would be taking legal action against the carmaker.

• The View from Europe: The quest for life beyond the compressor

  Thursday, January 16, 2014

  These look like exciting times for the future of refrigeration. One of the undisputed holy grails for researchers working at the frontiers of refrigeration science is to find a way to cool without requiring compressors and all the inefficiencies that vapor compression brings with it. And, crucially, they want to achieve them in a way that is commercially sustainable.

• The View from Europe: Auto A/C resolution still facing bumpy road

  Friday, January 03, 2014

  Policymakers in Europe have had something of a headache in ensuring one of their prime pieces of climate legislation — the Mobile Air Conditioning Directive — is properly followed. Given that restricting refrigerant on the basis of its GWP will inevitably see similar legislation in the U.S., this Directive's tortuous passage could prove a cautionary tale — and we are still not yet at the end of the road.

• The View from Europe: A new climate for cooling

  Wednesday, December 18, 2013

  ​It has been a remarkable, perhaps even historic, week in Europe for the refrigeration industry. In fact, some would argue, for the future of the planet, too. Representatives from the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union in Brussels had been charged with finding a resolution to the somewhat stalled negotiations for the revised F-gas regulations. Late in the afternoon of Dec. 16 , they reached a deal of sorts.

• The View from Europe: Heat recovery

  Thursday, December 05, 2013

  Last time we looked at how the subject of doors on chiller cabinets was vexing the supermarket refrigeration managers in Europe, because the way to undoubted energy savings was being blocked by concerns over the effect on merchandising. But if doors on fridges is a well-understood set of technologies remaining unexploited for nonengineering reasons, then the flip side of the coin is the whole realm of heat recovery.

• The View from Europe: An open-and-shut case?

  Thursday, November 21, 2013

  ​With energy prices at unparalleled heights in many parts of Europe, retail refrigeration managers are under pressure to reduce energy in any way they can. Interestingly, one of the most well-proven changes in terms of guaranteed savings and certainly among the simplest in engineering terms is the one that has met with the most resistance — putting doors on the open-fronted chillers.

• The View from Europe: Taxing question

  Thursday, November 07, 2013

  As the precise details of the forthcoming EU F-gas regulations are currently being hammered out in Brussels, many in the European refrigeration and air conditioning industry are bracing themselves for significant new cost to be added to the supply chain. The European Parliament has made plain its desire to effectively "penalize" those who use HFCs, by charging an allocation fee for production of the refrigerants.

• The View from Europe: The natural consequences of F-gas

  Thursday, October 24, 2013

  The ATMOsphere natural refrigerant conference Oct. 15-16 in Brussels provided a good opportunity to test the potential impact of the forthcoming F-gas regulations on the world of "naturals." For the changing landscape of legislation, with upcoming potential bans on servicing high-GWP equipment, it looks highly likely that we'll see natural refrigeration techniques thrust to center stage in the European RAC industry.

• At the cutting edge of environmentally advanced cooling

  Thursday, October 17, 2013

  ​Our recent Cooling Industry Awards once again provided refrigeration and air conditioning suppliers the opportunity to demonstrate their environmentally advanced innovations.

• The View from Europe: A bright future for refrigeration?

  Thursday, October 03, 2013

  There have been some interesting developments at the farther reaches of research lately that could have an interesting bearing on the future of the refrigeration sector.