Made with FlowPaper - Flipbook Maker
DEMAND September 2025 ASHRAE FALCON CHAPTER SET TO HOST “HVACR NEXUS 2025” CONFERENCE IN DUBAI EMICOOL SIGNS CONCESSION AGREEMENT WITH AL REEF COOLING COMPANY US$ PUBLICATION LICENSED BY IMPZ US$ PUBLICATION LICENSED BY IMPZ US$ PUBLICATION LICENSED BY IMPZ US$ PUBLICATION LICENSED BY IMPZ EDITORIAL CAMPAIGN IEQ & Fertility PERSPECTIVES HVAC analytics Qusai Abuabed, Armstrong Fluid Technology Germicidal UVC Tony Ghiraldo, UVTronix Small Modular Reactors Salem Alajmi, Former Consultant of H.E. Minister of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy NEWS • ECNO report: Building renovations have stalled • Eurovent issues new AHU controls Recommendation • JCI to supply Zürich with heat pumps using waste energy • Jeddah Construct: USD 692 bn Western region construction pipeline • Rheem launches Centurion HVAC for MEA region Is Thermal Energy Storage primed for a greater role in green cooling? ICE ONVOL. 20 NO. 9 SEPTEMBER 2025 26 18 19 22 20 24 12 10 www.ccme.news 3 page COVER STORY Ice on demand Is Thermal Energy Storage primed for a greater role in smart, green cooling? What stories in progress do TES-related text in LEEDv4 and AHRI Standards 900 (I-P) & 901 (SI) narrate? PERSPECTIVES The transcendental nature of HVAC analytics They are no longer part of a mere technical upgrade; today, they represent a shift in mindset – from costly cycles of ‘break-fix’ to ‘predict-prevent’, from inefficiency to optimisation and from siloed equipment to integrated building intelligence, says Qusai Abuabed of Armstrong Fluid Technology Keeping the coils running at factory efficiency Tony Ghiraldo of UVTronix says germicidal UVC ought to be a no-brainer in ensuring clean coils, leading to optimum heat transfer and maximum air flow Small Modular Reactors Should they be part of Kuwait’s strategy in achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, asks Salem Alajmi, Former Consultant of H.E. Minister of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy REGULARS 30 Regional News 40 Global News 04 eDItor'S note Here we go 06 EDITORIAL CAMPAIGN: IEQ & Fertility Are we endangered? Dr Iyad Al-Attar, air filtration and IAQ consultant Meeting at the intersection of IEQ and reproductive health Peter Cantone, Smart Air Defense From smoke to scents Dr Jenny Berens, Freudenberg Filtration Technologies ‘In IVF, every particle matters, because every embryo matters’ Nick Agopian, Reviveaire “Love is in the air” Marta San Román of AFEC (the association of HVAC equipment manufacturers in Spain)September 2025 4 Jeremy McDonald Principal of Guth DeConzo Consulting Engineers, in New York, writes on IAQ and building tracing. He served as the technical consultant to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority in development of an IAQ guideline for Higher Education in NY: “Covid-19 Response Guide, State University of New York”. Dan Mizesko Managing Partner/President, US Chiller Services International, writes on issues relating to chilled water systems, including operation & maintenance. Nabil Shahin Managing Director, AHRI MENA, writes on HVACR- specific regulation issues. Dr Iyad Al-Attar Independent air filtration consultant, writes on specific science and technology issues relating to Indoor Air Quality, including airborne particles. Omnia Halawani Co-Founder & Co-CEO, GRFN Global, writes on MEP consultancy- related issues. Krishnan Unni Madathil Auditor, Bin Khadim, Radha & Co. Chartered Accountants, carrying out an analysis of the market, writes on business opportunities for the HVACR industry. Editor Surendar Balakrishnan surendar@cpi-industry.com Associate Editor Karu Suren karu.suren@cpi-industry.com Online & Social Media Editor Nivedita Vijayan marketing@cpi-industry.com Editorial Assistant Arushi Menon features@cpi-industry.com Advertising Enquiries Frédéric Paillé +971 50 7147204 fred@cpi-industry.com Judy Wang Our representative in Asia (except India) +852 307 80 826 judywang2000@vip.126.com Deep Karani Our representative in North America +1 365 885-6849 deep.karani@cpimediagroup.com Design Head Ulysses Galgo uly@cpi-industry.com Webmaster Chris Lopez chris@cpi-industry.com Database/Subscriptions Manager Purwanti Srirejeki purwanti@cpi-industry.com Published by Founder, CPI Media Group Dominic De Sousa (1959-2015) Co-Founder & Commercial Director Frédéric Paillé fred@cpi-industry.com EMPANELLED COLUMNISTSCo-Founder & Editorial Director Surendar Balakrishnan surendar@cpi-industry.com Head Office PO Box 13700, Dubai, UAE Web: www.cpi-industry.com Printed by: Jaguar Printing Press L.L.C © Copyright 2025 CPI Industry. All rights reserved. While the publishers have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein. Visit our website: climatecontrolme.com/digital Also available at Get the next issue of Climate Control Middle Eastearly! Surendar Balakrishnan Editor @BSurendar_HVACR A S MENTIONED IN AUGUST, this issue of the magazine marks the beginning of the Editorial Campaign, ‘IEQ & Fertility. And we at Climate Control Middle East can already feel the rush of excitement, given the assemblage of some of the most renowned specialists in the fields of fertility and air filtration. Over the years – and we are nearing 20 as a magazine – we have conducted weighty editorial campaigns, including on District Cooling, IEQ (in schools and healthcare) and the ongoing one on refrigerants. IEQ & Fertility is special, because reproductive health is an intensely emotional issue. Given the importance, we want to go as deep as possible in unearthing insights that we hope shape new thinking on how to go about creating healthy living spaces across country-wide portfolio of building types. As stakeholders, we would like you to go beyond consuming the information presented in IEQ & Fertility; as with any healthy interaction, we would like you to participate in the discussion by coming forward and sharing your thoughts and experiences. Working on multiple building profiles over the years would have given you the kind of granular knowledge and in depth understanding of practical challenges, which in turn would have triggered the impulse to seek out solutions. We would like you to present those solutions towards the desired outcome of applying the most sophisticated approaches across different building types to improve reproductive health. At the risk of stating the obvious, the classification of buildings is as much based on their age as on their use. For long, the focus of retrofitting efforts in existing buildings has been on energy efficiency, for a large part. True, to aspire for greater energy efficiency aligns with the global aim of reducing the emission of greenhouse gases and, from an economic standpoint, lowering the Total Cost of Ownership, but IEQ can no longer be ignored. We closely experienced the havoc COVID-19 wreaked on our lives. While the pandemic was a profound, intense and highly visible drama that attained epic proportions, fertility-related challenges don’t register as much on radar screens but are no less in importance, as are the impacts of poor IEQ on numerous other aspects of health. It, therefore, falls upon each one of us to embrace building performance wholly. Sophisticated societies are built on the foundations of plurality. Here we go!GULFOODMANUFACTURING.COM DUBAI WORLD TRADE CENTRE NOV 4-6 2025 THE OF THE Gulfood Manufacturing stands as the leading global event for food and beverage manufacturers, supply chain leaders, and technological pioneers to access advanced innovations that recalibrate efficiency, amplify productivity, and secure long-term profitability. INGREDIENTS SUPPLY CHAIN PROCESSING AUTOMATION PACKAGINGSeptember 2025 6 T HERMAL Energy Storage (TES) is a general term describing a technology that stores energy created at a particular time and makes it available to be used later. The most common residential use of this technology is the making of ice cubes in the refrigerator at night for use the following day for keeping your drinks cold. In commercial buildings, this same technology is used on a much larger scale, making and storing ice at night that is used the following day to cool buildings. There are many reasons for using ice storage in buildings, the main one being dramatically reducing the cost to air condition buildings. By shifting electric consumption to off-peak hours, ice storage reduces peak electrical demand and takes advantage of lower off-peak electric rates, which translates into major cooling cost reductions. A thermal storage system that uses ice as a storage medium can provide added cooling capacity for any system. The ice tank can be charged, waiting to discharge during unusually high demand periods, or as a backup to critical systems. Environmental benefits An ice storage system is used as an environmentally friendly, smart grid technology for cooling building occupants. Ice storage takes advantage of cleaner, more plentiful night-time electricity generation, which is increasing in renewable content, by storing energy to cool buildings the next day. Ice storage complements renewable energies, by helping to overcome the intermittency of renewable energy. For example, in the United States, the generation of electricity from wind is mainly at night, therefore this energy needs to be stored so it can be available during the on-peak hours. Ice storage also helps to reduce source fuel consumption in many locations. Most base load generator plants are much more efficient as compared to “peaking” plants that come on during the day. By using night-time electricity to make ice and then storing it for daytime use, an ice storage system can be more (source) energy efficient compared to conventional instantaneous systems. Ice storage allows building operators to control when energy is used, decoupling the creation of the cooling from dispatching of cooling, allowing consumption of cheaper more efficiently produced energy when demand is high. Applications Ice storage is typically used in buildings that have large cooling loads during the day, as compared to nighttime. The technology can be applied to new construction, retrofits and building expansions. Typical applications include office buildings, schools, hospitals, airports, places of worship, data centres and buildings seeking LEED certification. Ice storage is a good option for lowering energy costs and environmental impacts, as a backup to critical systems, for reducing the size of electric services or cooling and heating equipment and to increase HVAC operating flexibility for system resiliency and redundancy. Ice storage should also be considered with electrical or cooling tower limitations, because the chiller may be sized based on average load instead of peak load. This is because the system reduces peak demand. (For reducing peak demand with storage, refer to page 51.32 of Chapter 51 of the ASHRAE Handbook, 2016 HVAC Systems and Equipment.) In addition, ice storage can be modified to fit a variety of applications. Ice storage tanks are available in many sizes and configurations to meet the needs of the project. They can be buried in the ground, or placed in the basement, parking lot or roof. Product basics The construction consists of a tank to hold water and a tubular heat exchanger that will hold a coolant (antifreeze) and allow water to freeze on the outside of the heat exchanger. During the charging period, coolant at approximately 24 degrees F (-4.4 degrees C) is circulated through the coil and leaves the tanks at approximately 31 degrees F (-0.5 degrees C). The ice will form around the outside of the tubes in the water held within the tank. As the ice thickness continues to grow, the entering temperature will drop slightly. As ice forms around each tube, the remainder of the water will rise to the top and can be used to monitor the ice level in the tank. ICE ON DEMAND Nabil Shahin , Managing Director, AHRI MENA, elaborates on Thermal Energy Storage’s role in smarter, greener cooling; establishes progress in that direction by highlighting TES-related text in LEEDv4 and AHRI Standards 900 (I-P) & 901 (SI) Thermal Energy Storage (TES) REGULATION ROUND-UPwww.ccme.news 7 the building needs cooling from the ice storage device, the ice is melted internally in such a manner as to melt the ice closest to the tubing, by circulating warmer secondary coolant though the tubes and then to the building. Ice on coil (external melt) Ice on Coil (external melt) is an ice storage technology in which tubes (coil) are immersed in water and ice is formed on the outside of the tubes. During the discharge, when the building needs cooling from the ice storage device, the ice is melted externally by circulating unfrozen water outside the tubes to the load. Unitary ice storage system A packaged assembly including an ice storage device and refrigeration equipment for cooling and charging the device; overall performance is rated by the manufacturer. Installation and maintenance considerations Ice storage devices should be installed and supported level by the general contractor, in strict accordance with the manufacturer’s directions. Because there are no moving parts, typical maintenance for storage tanks is minimal. The water level and glycol concentration should be checked annually. Standards and guidelines ASHRAE Standard 189 states that new buildings need to include a 10% demand reduction over a conventional system. This directive can be accomplished by using ice thermal energy storage. In 2015, the US Army incorporated requirements of ASHRAE 189.1 on all construction and renovation of new buildings and structures in the US territories, permanent overseas Active Army Installations, Army Reserve Centers, Army National Guard facilities and Armed Forces Reserve Centers. USGBC also has revised its standard to include demand reduction, offering points for building owners to reduce the overall demand of the building. In new construction, it is based on energy cost reduction, which may be achieved leaves the device. During off-peak hours, ice is formed on the outside of the tubes by circulating colder secondary coolant or refrigerant inside the tubing or pipes to build ice. During the discharge, when Product Types Ice on Coil (internal melt) Ice on coil (internal melt) is an ice storage technology in which tubes (coil) are immersed in water. The water never September 2025 8 with thermal storage, thus helping with LEED certification. See GBI ANSI Standard ANSI/GBI 01-2010-Energy Section 8.2.2.1. The new LEEDv4 also offers up to 3 points in the Demand Response credit to encourage designers and building owners to think beyond the walls of the project, to consider the interconnection between energy use decisions (how much and when it is used) and the realities of energy generation and distribution capacity. Demand response credits are available for permanent load shifting as accomplished with ice storage. AHRI Standards 900 (I-P) & 901 (SI), Performance Rating of Thermal Storage Equipment Used for CPI Industry accepts no liability for the views or opinions expressed in this article, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided here. The writer is Managing Director, AHRI MENA. He may be contacted at <NShahin@ahrinet.org>. Thermal Energy Storage (TES) Cooling, establishes a single set of requirements for the testing and rating of net usable storage capacity and auxiliary power input ratings for thermal storage equipment used for cooling, whereby equipment performance ratings can be compared from product to product. The standard applies to thermal storage equipment used for cooling that may be charged and discharged with any of a variety of heat transfer fluids. The equipment may be fully factory assembled; assembled on site from factory-supplied components; or field erected, in accordance with pre-established design criteria. AHRI Guideline T (I-P) & (SI), Specifying the Thermal Performance of Cool Storage Equipment, establishes the minimum information required for user specified application requirements and supplier-specified thermal performance data, for cool storage equipment. (All graphics on this page are courtesy ASHRAE Handbook, 2012 HVAC Systems and Equipment.) PERSPECTIVEDEMO Your place to Get hands-on with the latest tools and learn tips from expert-led training and education sessions. Engage with pros from across the industry and discover cost-effective and cutting-edge solutions to real-world problems. AHR is your place to expand beyond your day-to-day. FEB 24 2026 VEGASNext >