HVAC & Refrigeration Show preview
15th January 2018
UK: The focus of the UK air conditioning and refrigeration industry turns to London next week with the opening of the HVAC & Refrigeration Show at ExCel.
Formerly known as the ACR Show, the biennial event has been held at the NEC, Birmingham, since 2012. Renamed the HVAC & Refrigeration Show, the 2018 show takes place at Excel in London from January 23-25.
Previously the only UK exhibition dedicated to the UK air conditioning and refrigeration industry, the organiser attempted to expand the coverage of the last show in 2016 in an effort to attract heating and ventilating technologies. This was taken further this year with the name change to the HVAC & Refrigeration Show.
Despite this change, the small amount of heating content at this year’s show means it remains largely a refrigeration and air conditioning event.
The list of exhibitors includes around 80 companies, which represents a far from insignificant reduction from the previous show which featured just over 100 companies. However, this year’s event contains a number of new names, new products and some major UK launches.
Chief amongst these are in the air conditioning sector with the launch or, at least, relaunch of the Haier and Midea product ranges.
Haier, entering the UK market for the third time, will be exhibiting several products from its portfolio such as the commercial super match range, multi and single splits from the residential range and hot water heat pump products.
The major highlight will be Haier’s new MRV-V VRF air conditioning range. Pre-launch information indicates that the new VRF will be available in single module sizes from 8-26hp, up to a maximum module combination of 104hp. Incorporating DC inverter compressors, leading features include automatic refrigerant charging, auto addressing, automatic oil balancing and intelligent defrosting.
The HVAC & Refrigeration Show will also see the full UK launch of FG Europe UK as the exclusive distributor of Midea air conditioning products in the UK. While Midea equipment has been previously available in the UK, this latest venture is linked to the Greek-owned Feidakis Group.
On the refrigeration side, Spanish display case manufacturer Exkal brings its innovative range to the UK. With four manufacturing sites in Spain, it also has factories in China and Chile and a network of sales branches and dealers around the world.
Exhibitors and stand numbers
B30 A-Gas Rapid Recovery
F10 ACR News
C46 Advanced Engineering
B4 Anbang Electric
B46 Arbana
B40 Arcus FM
C36 Area Cooling Solutions
C43 Arvind Enterprises
C38 Boiswood
E10 Broughton Electro Air Products
E16 Brymec
C26 Building Engineering Services Association
B6 Bulane
C48 Business Edge
F30 Carrier Rental Systems
D38 City Lifting
D16 Conex Bänninger
F2 Desiccant Rotors International
C32 Doctoris Athanasios
B38 ECEX Air Intake screens
F12 Euroklimat
B32 Exkal
A28 FETA
F16 Fieldpiece Instruments
D12 First Choice Refrigeration Spares
E41 Fixxy
D50 Food Storage & Distribution Federation
D20 Fujitsu General Air Conditioning
F31 Gel-clear
D36 Green Zone Surveys
C18 Greenmill Supply Co
B43 Güntner GmbH
E30 Haier UK
C33 Hangzhou Elk Refrigerant Hith-Tech
C10 Hawco
F10 Heating & Ventilating Review
A20 Institute of Refrigeration
A24 IoR Service Engineers Training Area
F40 ITE Tools
C26 Joblogic
C30 Johnson Controls HVAC Parts
F39 Jumbo Instrument Co
D10 Lordan (UK)
D50 Marshall Fleet Solutions
C40 Martindale Electric Co
D40 Midea UK
D50 Montracon
E38 Newcooling Refrigeration & Air Conditioning
A46 Novorad
A31 Okappy Job Management Network
C45 OMS Machinery
E2 Oxford Hardware
E38 Parcel Holders
E40 Petra Engineering Industries
F33 Pole Star Products
C42 Polyaire
C6 Qingdao TianyiCool
C6 RABScreen
F20 Rapid Climate Control
C26 Refcom
C31 Refricomp
C35 Rullion
E12 SC Universal Comp Prod
A10 SafeAir Products
A12 Safeflame UK
C16 Sanhua International Europe
C28 Sauermann UK
A30 Seeley International
C41 SICCOM – Pumps2go
D18 Smith Brothers Stores
E30 Stainless Finishing Solutions
D34 Stanley Handling
B44 Strongduct
F12 TEKO
C4 Tenways Engineering Services
B39 Testo
C22 TF Solutions
A25 Thermofin
B6 Thessco
D30 Vulkan Industries
Opening times
Tuesday 23: 10:00 – 17:00
Wednesday 24: 10:00 – 17:00
Thursday 25: 10:00 – 16:00
Travel tip
The HVAC & Refrigeration Show halls are just inside the west entrance of Excel, so Custom House is the most convenient station for those travelling in on the DLR or London Underground.
Seminars
As ever, the show has an extensive number of free seminars running during the event.
There are two seminar theatres: the HVACR Theatre sponsored by Opteon and the Training & Skills Theatre sponsored by Toshiba.
In the HVACR Theatre James Henley, chiller product manager at Daikin Applied (UK) will be discussing Chiller Technology & Efficiency; Fujitsu’s technical manager Martyn Ives will explain why Controls are Key and Mark Hughes, business development manager, Chemours/Opteon will cover the F-Gas phase down: the Cliff – how to survive. The same theatre will also feature talks from A Gas, Seeley International, GEA, FG Europe, The Food Storage & Distribution Federation and more.
In the Training & Skills Theatre, Rob Smelt, a building services engineer at Toshiba will offer A guide to tackling a project using air cooled VRF; senior mechanical engineer Graeme Fox will talk F Gas: making it work properly. Compliance and better regulation by REFCOM and SkillFridge project manager, Mark Forsyth will explain the importance of skills competitions and Going for Gold. There will also be talks from WorldSkills UK, BESA and others, with the IOR holding in its annual conference in the Training & Skills theatre on the Thursday.
The new Industry Insight Series will see a leading panel of experts discuss Well Buildings in the Training & Skills Theatre on the Wednesday and Food transportation post Brexit in the HVACR Theatre on the Tuesday. The HVAC & Refrigeration Show will also see the launch of the 2018 SkillFridge competition.
The HVAC & Refrigeration Show is sponsored by Toshiba and Greenmill, with Brymec, Daikin Applied UK, Fujitsu, Haier, The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, and SkillFridge acting as brand partners.
The event also has the backing of a number of leading trade associations, including BESA, BSRIA, FETA, Refcom and the Institute of Refrigeration. The IOR is to hold its annual conference there, in addition to providing a programme of free technical training sessions and workshops for visitors on the show floor.
Further information on the seminar programme can be found here.
Pre-registration for visitors is advised. This can be carried out online here.
