The Tipping Point
What is a Tipping Point?
Defined as the point at which a previously rare phenomenon becomes dramatically more common, a tipping point moves the status quo to a place where there is no turning back. Radical change is often triggered by a “burning platform,” meaning that change must occur.
In the case of the heating & cooling industry, pressures have been building for some time, driven by concerns over energy consumption and climate change. The HVACR industry experiences increasing pressures from both consumers and regulatory agencies.
Consumer Pressures
Rising utility costs, economic uncertainty, increasing social consciousness with the green movement and tax incentives to promote the purchase of more efficient products prompt consumers to demand more for less. Customers want environmentally friendly heating and cooling systems that reduce their out of pocket utility costs, with increased comfort and at a lower purchase price. If system manufacturers are unable to meet efficiency standards which allow consumers to take advantage of tax incentives, those system manufacturers will no longer remain competitive.
Regulatory Pressures
Relative to refrigerants, the industry has seen nearly constant change over the past several decades as new synthetic refrigerants are created and adopted to replace prior ones, and then soon recognized as harmful and toxic.
We saw it with Freon in the 90’s. Most recently, R22 was banned as of January 1, 2010. What this means to OEMs is a significant investment in time, money and lost opportunity cost as products have to be reengineered, factories retooled, installers retrained and so forth. Years of time and money are poured into such a transition. The predominant refrigerant R410A will face a similar fate in the near future.
Similarly, our government, concerned about reducing energy consumption and reliance on fossil fuels pressures OEMs to improve SEER ratings which have to do with system efficiency. For years, R&D labs have been consumed as they strive to meet minimum SEER rating standards. There is only so much, however, that can be done with existing technology.
Radical Change
The industry is warming to the idea of one final transition to a natural refrigerant, which will be sustainable because the compound is naturally occurring; however, this requires new innovation in compressor technology.
The EU and Japan lead the charge toward finding a natural refrigerant solution which, for years, has been widely recognized as CO2 .
Market “canaries” indicate change is coming:
- EU & Japan are banning HFC’s in select markets today
- Experiencing notable acceleration of R&D in natural refrigerants and global activism
- Over 2m CO2 water heaters sold in Japan
Change is coming! EcoThermics has a radical new technology, an innovative, efficient, compressor that utilizes the excellent heat transfer properties of natural CO2.
Industry challenges call for a radical solution. EcoThermics has one.