World News

Industry news and insights from Europe and around the World

UK News

Latest news and developments in the United Kingdom

Products

Keep up-to-date with the latest new products and technology

Features

General articles, applications and industry analysis

It’s goodbye to an eventful 2016

As the curtain comes down on another year, we take a look back at what made 2016 such an eventful year in the refrigeration and air conditioning sector.

It’s certain that the bow waves of Brexit, the election of Donald Trump and global agreements on the phase down of HFCs are likely to ripple out through 2017 and beyond, but readers of the Cooling Post were more esoteric in their interests.

In another record-breaking year, the Cooling Post welcomed over 180,000 unique visitors in 2016 from an extraordinary 220 countries. Total visits numbered close on 340,000, with visitors consuming over 620,000 pages.

The biggest story of the year by far was the conviction and jailing of an Ohio man for illegally venting R22 refrigerant to atmosphere. While Europe continues to soft pedal over violations to the F-gas regulations, Shannon Wayne Harrold, a 48-year-old man from Glenford, Ohio, was sentenced in the US to 54 months in prison and ordered to pay $29,045 in restitution for violating the Clean Air Act. The story of his conviction attracted a staggering 7,886 readers.

It was perhaps predictable that the second most popular story was our exclusive on the largest HFO chiller installation of its kind in the world. Four 10MW Trane Series E CenTraVac water-cooled centrifugal chillers using the low GWP HFO R1233zd(E) were selected to replace the ageing R22 chillers serving the Channel Tunnel.

The top 10 stories of 2016:

1. Ohio man jailed for venting refrigerant
2. HFO chillers to cool the Channel Tunnel
3. Mechanical joint company Reflok closes
4. Daikin’s new US facility breaks records
5. Space Air to seek administration
6. US places bans on R404A and R134a
7. Carrier debuts R1233zd(E) chiller
8. Daikin set to buy refrigeration firm Zanotti
9. R134a faces chiller ban from 2025
10. Chemours proposes R123 “drop-in”

The staff of the Cooling Post wish you all a healthy, happy, peaceful and prosperous 2017.

Latest News

10th November 2024

Climaveneta to build new $47m plant in India

INDIA: Chiller manufacturer Climaveneta Climate Technologies is to Invest around $47m on a 23,000m2 manufacturing facility, located at Narasapura, near Bengaluru.
8th November 2024

Daikin invests in composite materials technology

JAPAN: Daikin has invested in Japanese metal matrix composite materials manufacturer Advanced Composites Corporation to advance the application of the technology to air conditioning equipment parts.
8th November 2024

Kuwait signs Kigali agreement

KUWAIT: The  the State of Kuwait, has followed its Gulf neighbours Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates in signing up to the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol.
8th November 2024

CO2 heat pump achieves ecodesign mark

NORWAY: Oslo-based heat pump manufacturer Tequs claims to be the first to achieve Ecodesign certification for its high-temperature, water-to-water CO2 heat pumps.
8th November 2024

Has Daikin finally cracked CO2 VRF?

BELGIUM: As a possible solution to the viability of VRF air conditioning technology in a low-GWP future, Daikin will preview a CO2 VRF system at the ISH show in March.
7th November 2024

Enter the AI-powered propane heat pump

UK: A new manufacturer has entered the heat pump market with a propane air-source unit powered by artificial intelligence to create “significant” energy savings.