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Heating, cooling, ventilation and air conditioning
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Mechanical Technology — November 2015
I
n 1902, responding to a humidity
problem at a lithography and pub-
lishing company in Buffalo, New
York, Willis Carrier realised that it
was possible to influence the humidity
of atmospheric air using sprayed water
at different temperatures.
On January 2, 1906, he was granted
a US patent for the world’s first spray-
type air-conditioner, an invention Carrier
called
‘Apparatus for Treating Air’
. It
was designed to humidify or dehumidify
ambient air, heating the sprayed water
for humidification and cooling it for
de-humidification.
Willis Carrier’s realisation and subse-
quent invention led to the recognition that
air conditioning involves four basic func-
tions: air temperature control; humidity
control; ventilation; and purification – a
principle unchanged in modern times.
In April 1909, Carriers’ employer,
Buffalo Forge, founded a wholly owned
subsidiary, the Carrier Air Conditioning
Company of America, with Willis Carrier
as its leader. This company was later
bought by Carrier along with six other
co-founders and was owned by Willis
Carrier and his partners until 1979, when
Carrier Air Conditioning was acquired by
United Technologies, the US$5.6-billion
parent of Pratt & Whitney Aircraft and the
Otis Elevator Company.
“More than a century separates Willis
Carrier’s 1902 air-conditioning installa-
tion from a modern Carrier chiller, but his
spirit of quality and innovation lives on in
the people of Carrier and in the products
it makes,” says Meikle.
AHI Carrier South Africa
In South Africa, the Carrier Corporation
opened Carrier South Africa in Johan-
nesburg to serve South Africa, Zimbabwe
and Mozambique. From 1996 through to
2000, Carrier expanded by buying com-
panies such as Metraclark-Recam, the
refrigeration and air-conditioning compo-
nent wholesaler. To reach into the ever-
expanding local air-conditioning market,
the company also opened branches in
KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape
to add to its Johannesburg head office.
In December 2008, Air-conditioning
and Heating International (AHI) entered
into a local joint venture (JV) with Carrier
and in early 2009, the combined entity
became AHI Carrier South Africa (Pty)
Ltd. The global JV model dates back to
December 1997, when the first agree-
ment was signed for the distribution of
Carrier products in Russia and all 12
CIS countries. Today, AHI Carrier JVs
are active in 63 other countries across
four continents: Africa, Asia, Australia
and Europe.
Notable successes
The company’s global solutions-driven
innovativity has recently been used to
preserve Michelangelo’s frescoes in
the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. The
masterpieces on the chapel ceiling were
in danger of experiencing accelerated
deterioration because of increasing num-
bers of visitors.
The new Carrier HVAC system uses
two Carrier AquaForce
®
30XWV water-
cooled chillers with Greenspeed
®
intelli-
gence, each supplying 580 kW of cooling
capacity. As well as the energy-saving
and control technologies used to maintain
optimal climate conditions for the protec-
tion of the paintings within the chapel,
an intelligent system of controls, linked
to an advanced video application from
UTC Building and Industrial Systems,
enables the HVAC system to anticipate
visitor levels and adjust its performance
intuitively.
The new system delivers twice the effi-
ciency and three times the capacity of the
Carrier has been a pioneer of air conditioning technology since 1902, when
founder Willis Carrier developed a dehumidifier for a printing works in Buffalo,
New York.
MechTech
talks to AHI Carrier South Africa’s managing director,
Scott Meikle (left) and its regional manager, Derrick Daubern (right).
A plant room of Carrier Aquaforce
®
30XW
chillers. These high-efficiency, indoor
water-cooled chillers are quiet, low-
vibration screw compressors. The units
have excellent part-load efficiency and a
compact footprint, making them ideal for
use as replacement units.
The pioneer of industrial and commercial
former system, which was designed and
installed by Carrier in the early 1990s.
“Carrier is always looking to de-
velop products that reduce overall
energy usage,” notes Meikle, citing two
recent introductions: Carrier’s versatile
AquaEdge™ 19XR 3000-RT two-stage
centrifugal chiller, which achieves high
efficiency while using a non-ozone deplet-
ing refrigerant; and the new AquaForce
30XW chiller, which offers 20% better
efficiency than its predecessors.
“Currently in South Africa, generators
are needed in commercial buildings for
power during load shedding. The lower
the energy use in the building, the better
– not just in the short term, but also to
reduce long-term demand. Since HVAC
accounts for up to 50% of the power
consumption in commercial buildings,
Carrier HVAC systems can contribute
toward reducing consumption, not just
through its modern chillers, but also
by incorporating products such as heat
pumps that use the waste heat generated
by the chillers to provide hot water for
buildings. This solution can remove the
need for electric heating elements, which
typically draw significant amounts of
electrical power,” Meikle tells
MechTech
.
Water shortages have also been pre-
dicted, which means air-cooled chillers,
the use of dry coolers with water-cooled
chillers, alternative grey water systems
for cooling tower top-up water and sea