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World Refrigeration Day – LIVE from around the world

The Cooling Post is delighted to be an official sponsor of World Refrigeration Day.

World Refrigeration Day, this June 26, is intended to serve as a means of raising awareness and understanding amongst the general public of the significant role that the refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pumps industry and technology play in modern life and society.

Over the next 48 hours or so, we will be updating this page to log events around the world, so let us know what you’re up to on World Refrigeration Day. It’s your day, so get involved. Tell people about it.
Send your stories, photos, videos, event links, etc, to us at [email protected]

A word from Steve Gill

Firstly, a word from Steve Gill, the man who first planted the seed of an idea that became World Refrigeration Day. Currently in the USA, he left this message for those already waking up in the east:

West African pride

This is the way to spread the word about refrigeration. Our friends in Burkina Faso have kick-off events there in style. Our thanks to Thanks to Madi Sakande of New Cold for sharing this great video.

Support from ASHRAE

World Refrigeration Day coincides with the ASHRAE Annual Conference in Kansas City. Showing support (l to r) are Dr Ahmed Alaa Eldin Mohamed from ASHRAE, Ayman El-Talouny from UN Environment, Ina Colombo of the International Institute of Refrigeration and Stephen Gill from World Refrigeration Day

Girl power

An inability to attract young people into our industry is a global one. Engineering apprenticeships are too often compared unfavourably with a university education, and the problem is particularly acute amongst young women.

So it is with some pride in the UK that two of its refrigeration industry’s female members were named in this year’s Top 50 Women in Engineering list. Jacinta Caden (above left) and Lisa-Jayne Cook were presented with their awards today.

Not only are they great ambassadors for the industry, they are staunch advocates of the apprenticeship system and keen to promote refrigeration and air conditioning as a career for other women.

The UK’s Institute of Refrigeration has its own networking group specifically aimed at females involved in the refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump industry.

This increasingly active Women in RACHP group hold regular events, workshops and development days and is open to anyone in any RACHP related role such as service and maintenance, design, research, engineering, science, sales, administration, marketing, training, etc.

Needless to say, they are keen supporters of World Refrigeration Day. Pictured above are (l to r) Kelly Bullivant of Fujitsu UK, Lisa Waters of the IoR, Karen Perry of Daikin UK and Samantha Buckell of Bitzer UK.

A message from Australia

A message from Tony Tony Gleeson, CEO of AIRAH, the Australian Institute of Refrigeration, Air conditioning and Heating:

“From medical applications to food supply and farming, process engineering to data and IT, refrigeration technologies are essential and yet go widely unrecognised.

“World Refrigeration Day serves as a means of raising awareness and understanding to the general public of the significant role that the industry and its technology play in modern life. World Refrigeration Day provides a chance to acknowledge our industry’s history, recognise its essential role in our lives, and to envision its future.

“Associations and societies from the US, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, Australia, Africa and across Europe are all supporting the inaugural World Refrigeration Day.

“AIRAH is proud to support the inaugural World Refrigeration Day. In this celebration we must not forget our very own heritage, with James Harrison’s work in Geelong in Victoria producing the very first mechanical form of refrigeration, earning him recognition as the “Godfather of Refrigeration.”

Cooling down in Singapore

Staff at Beijer Ref in Singapore take time to chill out on World Refrigeration Day

Further greetings from Singapore on World Refrigeration Day, this time from Johnson Controls

Back to basics

World Refrigeration Day also marks the birthday of William Thomson, better known as Lord Kelvin, the Scottish-born father of thermodynamics and creator of the Kelvin scale.

Educating the youngsters

Phil Wilkinson of the Australian refrigeration institute, AIRAH, chose to spend part of World Refrigeration Day spreading the word to local schoolkids.

Describing it as “one of the scariest and most rewarding talks I’ve ever done” he explained about the invention of refrigeration to a group of 9- to 11-year-olds.

“It was amazing to see the curiosity, enthusiasm and ideas from the group. I was blown away,” he said. “I encourage you all to see how you can start telling your story in our industry so you can be inspired and left feeling fearless about a better future for our planet.”

Part of our daily lives

Climalife has produced a short video showing how cooling touches normal every day lives.

Cake, anyone?

The special cake produced by Derbyshire Refrigeration for its open day today in the UK also reminds us how much the bakery industry depends on refrigeration.

Tour parties

Sites around the world are celebrating World Refrigeration Day by opening up their refrigeration facilities to interested parties. Guests gather, above, for a tour of Sainsbury’s new state-of-the-art distribution facility in Pineham, UK, and, below, a group from the Armenian Refrigeration Association on a tour of the refrigeration facilities at Zvartnots international airport.

Sunny side up

OK, so sometimes things get a little weird. Staff at Fujitsu UK celebrate World Refrigeration Day by wearing their Fujitsu Sunnies. No, I don’t know either, but this link will explain.

Fantastic fridges

As part of the World Refrigeration Day events, the UK’s Institute of Refrigeration launched two new sections of its www.fantasticfridges.com website, which is designed to introduce young people to the importance of, and practical science behind refrigeration technologies.  

With age appropriate sections for each key stage (KS), the web site features information, experiments suggestions and interactive games, bringing the cooling world to life for young minds. It covers various aspects of the refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump industry such as basic physics of refrigerators, applications where cooling is vital and how our sector can help tackle today’s big issues including global warming.

It also has a complete new section on careers with profiles, interactive quizzes and information about the new apprenticeship training and employers.

Supporting sustainables

US compressor manufacturer Emerson is using World Refrigeration Day to release a series of educational resources to raise awareness of the important role sustainable refrigeration and cooling technology plays in modern living. 

An official sponsor of the inaugural event, Emerson joins HVAC and refrigeration professionals from around the world to highlight the significant role that cooling and refrigeration plays in society – from the preservation of food and medicine supply chains, to enabling sustainable cities and high-performance buildings.

Activity includes the launch of the first in a new series of videos on sustainable refrigeration in Europe, along with an educational webinar in partnership with ASHRAE in the US.

“We are excited to take part in the first annual World Refrigeration Day,” said Eric Winandy, Director of Integrated Solutions, Emerson Commercial & Residential Solutions. “The challenge of phasing-down HFCs and shifting to more sustainable refrigeration systems has been an important topic in Europe, and we hope this day helps spread awareness for the sustainable refrigeration options available. It is particularly important to food retailers who arguably rely the most on refrigeration to preserve our food supply.”

Staying with Emerson, Dr Rajendran (above), director of The Helix, Emerson’s research and innovation centre located on the University of Dayton’s campus presented a 90 minute webinar on the responsible use of refrigerants. Titled, Refrigerants for Life: How Refrigerants Affect Modern Life, the ASHRAE webinar recording is available at https://bit.ly/2ZAWJKU.

Frise on air conditioning

A wish for an efficient World Refrigeration Day from David Frise, CEO of the UK’s Building Engineering Services Association (BESA).

Ice cream, we all scream

Staff at the EPEE secretariat in Brussels “share” an ice cream on World Refrigeration Day. Frankly, I’m not sure how that’s going to work – five of them and two ice creams. Unless the three in the middle are lactose intolerant, someone’s going to get hurt.

WRD live in Peterborough

The World Refrigeration Day Pavilion at the Temperature Controlled Storage and Distribution Exhibition at the East of England Arena in Peterborough, is the centre for a number of live broadcasts focusing on different aspects of the RACHP industry hosted by ACRIB. (Also involved are these professional leaflet wavers).

Trane provides the ideal platform

Trane UK’s decision to invite pupils from the local Costello School in Basingstoke to hear about what it means to work in the refrigeration and air conditioning industry, brought praise from the local mayor.

How children view the industry

UK wholesaler Hawco took a unique approach to World Refrigeration Day by asking their employees’ children to draw a picture depicting the industry. The results are enlightening, and we hope Max Dommett didn’t get into too much trouble when daddy got home.

An extraordinary day

Steve Gill, the inspiration behind World Refrigeration Day, was kept busy yesterday on the other side of the Atlantic. Attending the ASHRAE conference in Kansas City in the morning, he later flew to Miami for the RefriAmericas Conference & Expo, Latin America’s main refrigeration and air conditioning event.

Overwhelmed by the response, Gill commented: “What an amazing industry this is, filled with wonderful people. What an extraordinary day World Refrigeration Day has turned out to be.”

It’s a dog’s life!

Even dogs appreciate refrigeration, as Rupert, the companion of Karl Roberts, sales director at leak detection company Bacharach, will confirm.

Photo round-up

Airedale’s training manager Duncan Hitchcox takes it easy in the boss’ chair
A-Gas in South Africa celebrated with……..socks? To keep you warm on World Refrigeration Day, apparently.
More ice creams, this time with A-Gas Asia

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