TABLE OF CONTENTS - Everything R744

NORTH AMERICAn INDUSTRY SURVEY ON NATURAL REFRIGERANTS
To quantify the market for the natural refrigerants
ammonia (NH 3
), carbon dioxide (CO 2
), hydrocarbons
(HCs), water (H 2
O), and air, an online survey was sent
to more than 7,000 HVAC&R professionals and relevant
industry associations world-wide. The survey ran from
March 6 to November 6 2012. In total, 559 responses
were included in the analysis. Specific objectives of the
survey were to identify expectations and priorities for the
heating, refrigeration, and air-conditioning industry in
North America, familiarity levels with natural refrigerants
(NR), availability of NR solutions and future plans, and
the potential of North America to become a world leader
in natural refrigerant solutions. Moreover the survey
asked about the general HVAC&R market conditions
for NRs, the impact of policy on market development,
key purchasing criteria for commercial end-users, and
the strengths and weaknesses of NRs compared to
traditional solutions.
METHODOLOGY
Although a global industry survey had been conducted
in 2011, this new survey was the first to specifically
receive only input from industry stakeholders active in
Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America. The
survey consisted of a mixture of up to 28 structured
(closed-ended) and unstructured (open-ended)
questions, depending on the question logic selected.
Responses were received mainly from a list of 7,000
HVAC&R industry experts from around the world, and
various industry associations and voluntary initiatives,
such as the GreenChill Program in the US, provided help
in disseminating the survey.
As the survey naturally attracted respondents who
were familiar with and/or interested in natural
refrigerant (NR) technology solutions, there was a clear
overrepresentation of the “pro-NR” industry (actors
who already offer or use NR systems). To avoid this
bias as much as possible, wherever marked differences
in response patterns from the total data set could be
identified, both sub-sets of “pro-NR” and “non-NR” were
explicitly stated and contrasted.
MOST INTEREST FROM USA
As previously stated the large majority of the 556
respondents were located in the United States of America
(80%), followed by Canada (15%) and Mexico (5%). Most
organizations represented belonged to either a small
organization with less than 100 staff members (40%)
or a large organization with more than 500 employees
(40%). Medium-sized organizations were represented to
a minor extent (20%). While the US represented between
84% and 89% of medium to large size companies,
relatively more responses were received from smaller
organizations in Canada (22%), where the USA only had
a share of 70%.
ENGINEERING & CONTRACTING SECTOR
DOMINANT
Respondents were first asked to indicate which types of
activities their organization is active in; multiple choices
were possible. More than one third of participants
represented the engineering & contracting sector (35%),
followed by a quarter from the system manufacturing
business (26%), and component supplying sector
(25%). Associations and marketing consultancies were
significantly less represented, with values of 3% and 10%
respectively. End-users made up close to one fifth of
respondents (18%), whereas training & research activities
were carried out by 13% of respondents. A crosstab
analysis with the organization size indicated that
associations, training & research, as well as consultancy
& marketing were evenly distributed, accounting for
the whole range of small to large organizations. On
the other hand, end-users were mainly found in the
“large” category, and both system manufacturers and
component suppliers tended to be in the medium
to large category. Only Engineering & Contracting –
the strongest response group overall – was mainly
represented by small companies (50% of which were in
this category).
COMMERCIAL REFRIGERATION LARGEST
RESPONSE GROUP
The largest share of respondents (61%) was "currently
active" – either on the supply or demand side - in the
commercial refrigeration sector. More than half of
all respondents were (sometimes also) active in the
industrial & commercial air-conditioning business (54%)
and in industrial refrigeration (53%). This high response
rate from the commercial and industrial refrigeration
business was to be expected, given the extended use of
ammonia in industrial plants and the renewed interest in
natural working fluids in supermarket applications.
Slightly less pronounced were activities in the lightcommercial
refrigeration sector. Mobile air conditioning
(20%) and transport refrigeration (19%) attracted the
lowest response rate. This was not surprising, given that
these industry sectors have adopted natural refrigerants
only to a minor extent. The industrial, commercial, and
residential heating sectors, as well as the domestic
refrigeration and residential air-conditioning sectors,
ranged from a 23% to 38% response rate. Again,
respondents could select multiple options.
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