Trends and Figures: Chiller market grows and diversifies

According to reports published during the 2008 AHR Expo held on January 22-24, 2008 in New York, the chiller market in 2006 was USD 2 billion in Asia-Pacific, USD 1.5 billion in Europe and USD 1 billion in the US. The growth (as compared to 2005) was the highest in China (+13.1%) and in the US (+6.2%). In the US, reciprocating, screw and scroll chillers had the largest market share, followed by centrifugal and then absorption. Screw-chillers - particularly those using R-410A (HFC) - have increasingly replaced reciprocating chillers in many applications; more attention is paid to development of high-capacity screw compressors. Some of the noteworthy developments seen at the Expo were a new integrated variable speed water-cooled screw chiller and a new air-cooled chiller with microchannel coils (Evergreen 23 XRV and AquaForce, Carrier Corp.), a new oil-free centrifugal chiller (Smardt) and an self-contained air-cooled scroll chiller using R-410A which is said to reduce operating costs by 15-20% as compared to standard models due to high energy efficiency at part load and improved reliability thanks to corrosion-resistant microchannel coils (Tempo, York).