From June 14 to 16, the XI Ibero-American Congress of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration - CIAR 2011 was held in Mexico. The event had a very varied academic agenda and had as its central theme "Net-Zero" zero energy consumption.
by María Cecilia Hernández
The XI Ibero-American Congress of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration – CIAR 2011, culminated with a very good balance, positive opinions from the attendees and great expectations for the next version.
In addition to the academic days, business meetings, work meetings and the famous FAIAR Golf Tournament 2011, which reached its third edition; this year the interest focused on a topic that is increasingly on the lips of those who work for this industry and its end users: energy efficiency.
Rational use, savings and consumption strategies, new alternatives for energy generation and green production were issues that became extremely important in each presentation, forum and keynote speech of the congress.
Eduardo Miranda, representative of Alerton and who was in charge of offering the conference Automation systems for energy saving, indicated that the vision of building control must revolve around the economy, without neglecting four fundamental factors: safety, comfort, energy saving and compliance with regulations.
"This is achieved through the implementation of some basic strategies and others of an advanced level. Some of these strategies are: limiting electricity demand, disconnecting when not in use, controlling ventilation demand and monitoring CO2 emissions; allow, wherever possible, natural ventilation; control lighting, optimize the cooling tower, integrate security and lighting systems to eliminate parasitic loads," Miranda explained.
Reduce environmental impact
Likewise, César Xavier Castillo, mechanical engineer from Ecuador, brought to the event his talk Refrigerants and polyurethanes: two factors that also add to the rational use of energy, with which he presented the best way to proceed and the most recommended alternative methods when it comes to using substances that affect the environment.
"In our role as users of refrigerant gases, new techniques and recommended practices are constantly added, which when complemented by our knowledge of A/C&R, allow us to work responsibly with the environment; thus contributing to a green legacy for future generations," Castillo said.
The Ecuadorian indicated that, "in that sense, there are methods of use and implementation of substances such as rigid polyurethane, which has become an excellent ally in the objective of minimizing energy consumption in buildings. However, we must ensure that it gives us its maximum insulating power. Therefore, good quality is the most important thing. Densities above 33 kg / m3 guarantee an acceptable product."
Commissioning, a good strategy
Exposing, searching, researching and discussing the best way to achieve a zero energy balance was what the attendees of CIAR 2011 did. Among the most commented methods was the one presented by the Colombian Camilo Botero, secretary of the Federation of Ibero-American Associations of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration – FAIAR.
"Commissioning, according to ASHRAE, in Guideline 0-2005 in its prologue, defines it as: 'A quality-oriented process to achieve, verify and document, that the performance of facilities, systems and assemblies meet the objectives and criteria previously defined'. I talk about this because it is essential to differentiate between the concepts of project management, technical auditing, technological management and commissioning," said Botero.
According to the FAIAR secretary, ASHRAE's approach of having a zero energy balance by 2030 is, perhaps, one of the most ambitious projects that have been proposed in the industry.
"What this means is that we must incentivize a building to collect as much energy as possible from renewable sources, but always maintain acceptable functionality. Buildings will be able to access energy from the public grid, but on the condition that the energy balance on an annual basis is "almost" zero.
For this, Botero proposes that commissioning is one of the good methods that helps to meet this objective, since it is a process focused on quality, to improve the delivery of a project. The process focuses on verification and documentation so that the installation and all systems are planned, designed, installed, tested, operated and maintained to meet the owner's requirements.
"It's not an event, nor a short-term task, nor is it the verification of a checklist. It's a progressive process," Botero said.
Commissioning is a quality assurance process that must meet four well-defined stages: pre-design, design, construction and occupancy and operation.
Green, a good color
This type of process can be applied to any type of building and construction project, even if it starts from scratch or from a building already built. One of the most energy consumption reported in the global context are buildings and commercial facilities.
Mexican engineer Jorge Puentes Juárez spoke about the subject at his conference Sustainable Solutions in Commercial Facilities. Where he reported that Commercial Buildings are responsible for the consumption of 40% of all energy on the planet, 68% of all electricity, 12% of drinking water, 40% of gas emissions and 30% of waste. "
According to this, the vice president of the Argentine Cold Association, Florentino Rosón Rodríguez has called in multiple reports on the importance of adopting green solutions for power generation.
"If the use of non-renewable resources and the emission of toxic gases are not reduced, we will have a very unencouraging prospect: global warming, depletion of fuel and mineral reserves, degradation of drinking water reserves, advance of deedification, flooding of coastal areas will be just some of the possible consequences," said the Argentine.
According to engineer Rosón, this context has given rise to concepts known as sustainable architecture, green architecture, eco-architecture and environmentally conscious architecture. Which means that each architectural design seeks to take advantage of natural resources in such a way as to minimize the impact on the environment and on the inhabitants, as well as minimize the negative consequences for the environment and moderate the use of construction materials, energy consumption, and built space.
CIAR 2011 was positioned as a space conducive to business meetings, contact with professionals in the HVACR industry and networking.
