Trends and Figures: HVAC&R Industry is big in Australia

A new Cold Hard Facts report makes up for the lack of previous data concerning the Australian HVAC&R industry and reveals the crucial importance of the sector in the national economy. For instance, the study values the direct spending of the industry at AUD 16 billion at least in 2006, i.e. slightly over 1.7% of the GDP. Other striking figures involve electricity consumption of related machinery (45 000 GWh in 2006, i.e. 21.9% of Australian electricity consumption), greenhouse gas emissions (40 Mt of CO2, i.e. 7% of all Australian GHG emissions) or staff employed: at least 163 000. Other figures point at more specific aspects of the sector's activity: for example the existence of at least 5.63 million installed air conditioners in 2006 (approximately 0.7 units per household). National cold storage capacity amounts to 9.46 million m3 with possibly 70% using ammonia as a refrigerant. 22 450 chiller units are installed in the country and 1438 chiller units were sold in 2006 alone. The recent availability of such figures has suddenly made the sector a "highly visible industry we should take note of", according to Steve Anderson, Refrigerants Australia, who launched the study at AIRAH's 2007 Sustainability Conference in Melbourne in November.