How Daikin Is Managing the Lifecycle of Shopping Centre Air Conditioning
Product lifecycle management is of critical importance to any organization involved in the business of ongoing maintenance and field service – especially when it comes to those brands which manufacture the products they are responsible for.
Customers need to be confident the equipment they have installed in their buildings is implemented alongside a plan for keeping it running at optimal effectiveness and efficiency for the entire lifetime of the product. Any faults or shutdowns can result in a loss or degradation of the organization’s ability to perform its core function and lead to a loss in productivity, revenue, and/or reputation.
This point is particularly salient when it comes to air conditioning units. These pieces of equipment need to be managed carefully during their entire lifecycle or they can not only lead to the problems detailed above, but also cause significant environmental harm.
Daikin
As one of the world’s leading suppliers of heat pumps, air conditioning units, and coolers, Daikin Applied Ltd understands the needs of the industries it serves all too well. This is why the Osaka headquartered Japanese multinational manufacturing company was selected as the partner to supply a full air conditioning package solution including VRV technology and Air Handling Units to meet the comfort needs of a newly built shopping center – the INTRO Bergheim. A 22 retail units shopping center near Cologne, in Germany.
"With a broad product portfolio, Daikin could meet the needs for over 90% of the technical building equipment,” said Daikin in a press release announcing the contract. "Heating, air conditioning, ventilation and overall system control thus came from a single source, ensuring perfect coordination and savings on installation and maintenance costs. In this way, interlocking systems could be optimized in terms of energy efficiency, maintenance, and management, and combined without compatibility problems. This will also ensure cost reductions during the life cycle of the building and substantial energy and CO2 savings.”
By selecting its Plug & Play product package, Daikin was able to ensure installations was simple and rapid, and customers could benefit from the increased energy efficiency benefits of a package of technological solutions made and optimized to efficiently work together. These products are also designed to be simple to replace, swap out, and maintain, ensuring lifecycle management is smooth and easily accessible.
"Daikin also supplied a comprehensive control management system, which can control the entire HVAC system, integrating both Daikin equipment and devices from other suppliers,” continued the company. "By controlling the individual indoor units or shop areas via user-friendly remote controls, the system can be controlled in a decentralized way. Also, the intelligent energy management optimizes the performance of all the units in the system, allowing to promptly adjust settings based on the actual needs the different areas of the shopping center might have.”
Reclaimed Refrigerants
If that wasn’t enough, Daikin also ensured the lifecycle of its products is managed in a more sustainable manner by prioritizing the use of reclaimed refrigerants in its heat pumps and cooling systems.
To create a circular economy of refrigerants, Daikin is dramatically cutting the volume of virgin gas used to charge its products and instead reclaiming up to 400,000 kg/year of R-134a. The reclaimed gas has been recovered and reprocessed to match the performance and quality of virgin product and has been independently assessed and validated in line with the international standard AHRI700.
"The company is now using reclaimed gas in seven different models across its heat pump and chiller ranges, which will make a substantial difference to our environmental footprint and that of our customers,” said Daikin Applied UK Product Development Manager, James Henley. "This process avoids the environmental impact and costs associated with end-of-life refrigerant disposal. In theory, there is no limit to how many times we can do this so long as the reclaimed and reprocessed gas continues to meet the AHRI700 specification of better than 99.5% purity.”
The deployment of reclaimed refrigerants is not counted as part of the permitted quota system under the F-gas regulation, which is phasing down global warming gases. This means there is no limit on the amount manufacturers and equipment owners can use.
Final Thoughts
Product lifecycle management is a critical component of field service provision. Daikin’s use of simple to operate plug and play air conditioning equipment and pivot to reclaimed refrigerants ensures it has a reliable and sustainable method of ensuring its products remain at maximum effectiveness and efficiency for the entire lifecycle.
You can hear VP of Technical Services for Daikin North America LLC, Stuart Werner speak at Field Service Palm Springs 2023, being held in April at the JW Marriott Desert Springs, Palm Springs, CA.
Download the agenda today for more information and insights.