By Benjamin Brits
Progress around the FRIGAIR educational programme has already taken shape to offer the industry all of the latest information, technology and trends of the now and for the future.
As the speakers prepare to share their knowledge and experience, we have put together a glimpse of what you could expect to learn about over the three days of free-to-attend workshops. These are in no particular order – the final programme will be available in the official FRIGAIR Catalogue and online on the official website: www.frigairexpo.co.za.
The SAIRAC workshop will fall into slots of one hour each with 40 – 45 minute talks and an allocation of 10 minutes per session for questions and answers. There will be 11* workshops over the three days. The following are some of the sessions visitors can look forward to.
South African Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Contractors Association (SARACCA)
Barney Richardson will present on refrigerant safe handling, which covers the processes, training, registration and renewals. This workshop will also cover the levels of registration and responsibilities.
South African Qualification & Certification Committee – Gas (SAQCC Gas)
This workshop will address online certificates of conformance (CoCs) including the processes and procedures involved.
Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE)
Margaret Molefe will discuss the South African signing of the Kigali amendment and phase-down/out of HCFC’s and HFC’s.
Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Academy (ACRA)
Grant Laidlaw will speak about the status quo of air conditioning and refrigeration training in South Africa. He will also cover the latest qualification outline and address regular questions such as:
- Are natural refrigerants, including flammable hydrocarbons, in the training curriculum?
- Is R32 included?
- Is flammable refrigerant training available?
- How to set up apprenticeships and a workplace register with a SETA.
- Are you obliged to use any particular SETA?
- About learnerships.
- Qualifying your staff, trade testing.
- Who qualifies for trade testing, what criteria does the applicant need to meet, ie time, scope, qualifications?
- What process does an applicant/company need to follow?
- Will there be an ammonia-specific qualification with a trade test?
- What does the future hold for air conditioning and refrigeration training and trade testing?
Special training projects will also be included.
Energy Partners
The subject of this talk, presented by Dawie Kriel, is servitisation in refrigeration and how it supports the use of natural refrigerants and shifts the focus sharply to life-cycle cost. Servitisation is a well-known tool in many industries such as photocopiers, Uber and aircraft engines; but in refrigeration it is a relatively new concept and is now known more widely as Cooling as a Service (CaaS). Energy Partners
started offering their customers CaaS as an option since 2017. Recently, the Basil Agency for Sustainable Energy (BASE), has started a world-wide drive to promote CaaS as a tool to promote the use of natural refrigerants and increased energy efficiency. Kriel will explain how CaaS works in practice, including the advantages to end-users and suppliers. In conclusion, with the use of data from refrigeration systems Energy Partners owns and operates, it will be demonstrated how the lifecycle cost can be optimised and guaranteed when using natural refrigerants in a CaaS project.
A Gas
Werner Terblanche will discuss driving a circular economy and the latest refrigerant trends. His topic highlights the use and disposal lifecycle for refrigerants and why we need to change our outlook on how we deal with refrigerants. With an industry faced with environmental pressures, and one that operates under a quota mechanism, he will explain why A‑Gas is focusing on refrigerant reclamation to help reduce our carbon emissions to protect the planet. Terblanche will also be showcasing current refrigerant trends to lower GWP alternatives.
Baltimore Aircoil Company (BAC)
BAC will have an international speaker that will present on the subject of Legionnaires’ disease.
Other workshops will be presented by:
- Apollo Air
- Industrial Water Cooling (IWC)
*11 workshop slots were allocated at time of publishing. The final programme will be published in the official visitor catalogue.
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