An arduous and judicious work is what awaits us in issues such as quality certifications and seals with which quality can be guaranteed both in the processes and in the results. Our professionals need training at all levels.
by: Camilo Botero – Consulting Engineer (Acaire)
When one analyzes the set of Latin American countries, in what has to do with issues of certifications and seals, it can be concluded that there is little or nothing that has been done so far and that it really has the impact that is needed in these times of great technological and regulatory change in the field of air conditioning (understood by them the processes of comfort air conditioning, industrial processes that require specific climates, comfort heating in countries that require it, ventilation and cooling).
On the subject of certification, three main areas can be separated: certification of professionals, certification of technicians and certification of equipment performance, which I will detail in more depth below.
Certification of professionals
As for the certification of professionals, the International Technical Society Organized to Advance the Arts and Sciences of Heating, Ventilation, Air-conditioning and Refrigeration (ASHRAE), has a very detailed program for it and according to this association each ASHRAE certification program has its own eligibility criteria, which consists of combinations of education and experience in the field of HVAC&R, that is, all fields of air conditioning.
To earn an ASHRAE certification each candidate must submit an application and if it is approved they must take a subsequent exam.
The programs that currently exist (for its acronym in English, with a free translation on my part) are:
- HFDP: Design Professional for Healthcare Facilities
- HBDP: High Performance Building Design Professional.
- OPMP: Operation and Performance Management Professional.
- CPMP: Professional for the Management of the Commissioning Process.
In Colombia there are still no programs of this type, but in ACAIRE work is being done to achieve ACAIRE certifications for Construction Engineers, Operation and Maintenance Engineers and Designer Engineers. Well, the law empowers the association to do so.
Technician Certification
This need to certify the personnel who carry out the work in the field of installation, operation and maintenance of the equipment associated with air conditioning, is evident in our countries. The goal is to achieve optimal performance of these personnel that is of undeniable importance in our industry.
ACAIRE offers a program that over time has been better structured, which consists of three levels that when completed gives students the necessary skills to develop their work in the best way.
Training, an essential step
Obviously in order to certify the staff both professionally and technically, they must be given the theoretical and practical training they require, this can be done formally in universities and technical institutes. However, there they usually offer training that is not in line with practical needs.
Therefore, an institution is required that provides training aimed at professionalization, that is aware of all the technological changes of great magnitude and that contains concepts such as sustainability, zero energy balance, commissioning, energy audits, alternative energies, latest generation standards such as 189.1, carbon footprint, climate change, control, among others.
We must reach the postgraduate level, such as specializations and master's degrees for the subject of air conditioning and refrigeration. This process must be supported by all Ibero-American associations through FAIAR, federation of these disciplines in the aforementioned region.
In ACAIRE, for example, we decided to form the Colombian Institute of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (ICAIRE), which has remained a strategic objective and a goal of priority fulfillment.
Team Performance Certification
A very felt need in the Latin American region is that manufacturers can have laboratories and qualified personnel that certify all the design parameters that are met according to standards, so that both the supplier and the client have certainty of what they are buying.
This requires substantial but indispensable investments in laboratories, which can be sponsored by the manufacturers themselves. However, that institution must remain totally independent of them and make the evaluation of the performance of the teams more accurately and truthfully.
This task requires developing standards to be able to do the tests that certify the performance of these equipment. AHRI, which is the U.S. Association that is in charge of the Certification of Air Conditioning Equipment in a large part of the countries that produce such equipment, has developed a series of standards for free access through its network. A first exercise may be the translation of some of these standards and for this we have initiated discussions with this association in this regard.
Stamps are missing
It is evident the absence of seals that typify the energy performance and care of the environment of the buildings and of the entire industrial and commercial installation that uses air conditioning for comfort or any process.
The USGBC, which is the North American council for green buildings, has developed the LEED, which quantifies the energy and environmental scores that a building must have to be considered high performance or at least meet minimum requirements in these aspects. This label is becoming popular in Latin America but does not adapt very well to our means and resources.
Spaniards have the Regulation of Thermal Installations in Buildings (RITE), which can serve as a reference for us, since it is written in Spanish. Likewise, in Colombia, the National Institute of Technical Standards (Icontec), has begun the study of a seal that is applicable and consults the needs and possibilities of this country.
Even with all the above, the path to professionalization and the achievement of certifications is almost all pending to be traveled, there is still a long path to reach the standards that are intended to be highly competitive in the world environment.
