Seeley International                            HRSC0004

Written evidence submitted by Seeley International

1.     SEELEY INTERNATIONAL                                                       

Seeley International is Australia’s largest air conditioning and ducted gas heating manufacturer. Headquartered in Adelaide and with factories in Adelaide (South Australia), Albury (New South Wales) and Colorado (USA), the company was founded by Frank Seeley, AM FAICD who remains Chairman.

Seeley International has been manufacturing air conditioners since 1972 and, unlike many of its competitors, designs and manufactures most of the components for its products within Australia. Seeley International is world leader in Evaporative Cooling solutions: with offices all over the globe (Italy, France, United Kingdom, USA, South Africa and of course Australia), the company ensures a strong level of commitment to the local markets and an everyday support to dealers and distributors.

a.     Our background, unique perspective, experience and expertise

Renowned for ingenuity and innovation, Seeley International leads the market in the design and manufacture of air conditioning systems based on Evaporative Cooling technology.

Frank Seeley founded Seeley International in the early 1970s. The biggest problem at that time was the issue of corroding metal parts. Frank’s epiphany was to develop the world’s first-ever all-plastic cooler. While most people told him it couldn’t be done, Frank persisted. He began in his garage at home in suburban Adelaide, South Australia, and from there he set up a manufacturing operation which produced 1,000 coolers in the first year. After successfully developing the first all-plastic portable coolers, Frank went on to develop the world’s first all-plastic rooftop coolers. This wasn’t just a breakthrough for Seeley; it was a breakthrough for the entire industry. The plastic coolers became, and remain, the industry standard.

Today, Seeley International employs more than 500 people, has 3 manufacturing facilities and exports to more than 100 countries around the world. Seeley International’s vision is to lead the world in creating climate control solutions which continue to be highly innovative, of premium quality and inspirational in their delivery of energy-efficiency. Its long track record demonstrates the expertise, infrastructure and resources to seamlessly deliver HVAC solutions around the world.

Investing more than $25 million in research and development every year and employing more than 50 expert engineers working on revolutionary, “over‑the‑horizon” product innovations, the company continues to deliver extremely durable, reliable and innovative solutions that meet the customers’ every need. Having world first products and processes, over 300 patents, the

company is continually bringing world first innovative products to market.

The reasons that make our point of view unique compared to all other companies in the A/C sector are:

1. Our technology does not depend on F-gases but is based on water as refrigerant.
2. Based on the principles underlying evaporative cooling, how evaporative cooling works, an increase in ambient temperatures leads to an increase in performance (see the graphic) .
3. The prospect of improving efficiency and reducing the size of A/C units does not penalize our business but instead strengthens it.

2.     Issues addressed.

We have chosen to deepen the following 2 issues for which we believe we have a contribution to give to this committee.

• How can sustainable cooling solutions and adaptation strategies be implemented in such a way as to minimize overheating, reduce energy consumption and prevent overloading of the electricity grid during peak demand?

         How can cleaner refrigerants with low or zero global warming potentials support the UK’s cooling needs while contributing to the national emission reduction targets?

The greatest challenge for all governments is reducing national emissions, abandoning energy consuming products, adopting technologies that can really make a positive difference for the environment and to contrast climate change.

Between 2021 and 2022 carbon dioxide emissions from Business sector decreased by 4.1%[1]. This decrease is likely to have been influenced by the warmer temperatures, resulting in less heating used in buildings. 2022 has in fact been significantly warmer than 2021. In July 2022, UK temperatures exceeded 40°C for the first time on record. Temperatures remained above 20°C overnight and the highest daily minimum record was also broken. The chance of the UK seeing 40°C days could be 10 times more likely in the current climate than in the past. By 2070, regions in the south could have average hottest days reaching 40°C. Warmer, drier summers are likely to increase the risk of wildfires in the UK, as seen in the summer of 2022[2].

In this scenario, we are going to see more and more businesses requiring cooling systems before the first half of this century ends. Specifically, when businesses involve perishable that need to be kept at specific temperatures, or when the heat produced by machines is already significant, cooling will soon be a must.

In fact, if springs and summers are becoming hotter and hotter, we are going to see a trend switch in the UK, from heating systems as top selling, to cooling systems demand skyrocketing.

Unfortunately, researchers calculated air conditioning is responsible for the equivalent of 1,950 million tons of carbon dioxide released annually, or 3.94% of global greenhouse gas emissions[3].

Therefore, it is necessary to act in the adoption of energy efficient cooling technologies that provide the required cooling capacity, without negatively impacting on the environment.

Seeley International has designed, patented and manufactured one of the most efficient cooling systems in the world: hyper efficient indirect evaporative cooling.

Hyper efficient indirect evaporative cooling is an evolution of direct evaporative cooling systems:

• This breakthrough technology cools the air at temperatures that rival refrigerated systems without adding any moisture.
• The hotter it gets outside, the better the performance of the unit. Unlike traditional direct expansion (DX) systems, requiring more energy as temperatures rise, indirect evaporative cooling uses the same amount of power and still delivers cooled, dry air.
• No chemical refrigerants: this system only uses water (R718) and little electricity to run. 
• In addition to that, the system delivers 100% fresh outside air, which is great to improve Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in a time when the cleanliness of the air we breath is a must for all sectors.

Hyper efficient indirect evaporative cooling can work in stand-alone configuration, thus covering the entire cooling needs of a building, or in conjunction with an already installed system, improving the energy efficiency of energy consuming existing systems, with no need of disposing of them.

Answering to the committee questions, we believe that when it is not necessary to reach extremely low operating ambient temperatures but the goal is general thermal comfort combined with a renewed attention to air quality, it is necessary to opt for a stand-alone solution with an indirect evaporative cooler as an alternative to the traditional A/C units.

If, on the other hand, it is necessary to achieve lower temperatures setpoints and a moisture control for some applications the combined use of an indirect evaporative system with the aircon unit (Hybrid mode) can substantially reduce the energy consumption in two possible ways:

• Precooling mode: The Indirect evaporative cooler can precool the air before entering the air handling unit (AHU).
• Supplementary cooling: Working in conjunction with a DX system the I.E.C. can bear the heat base load and guarantee air changes while the DX unit can do the temperature and humidity trim fine adjustment.

Both configurations can be realized on a new project as well or as a retrofit operation of an existing installation.

3.     Evidences

a.     Factual information about Indirect Evaporative Cooling

Using water as the cooling medium and only a small amount of electric, Indirect evaporative coolers aim to solve the problem of increased humidity by separating the air that's evaporatively cooled, known as the working air, from the air supplied to the space.  This is done using a heat exchanger. Therefore, the supply air is not directly cooled by the evaporative process, and so these are called Indirect evaporative coolers.

The core is an air-to-air heat exchanger consisting of alternating dry and wet channels.

1. Hot outside air enters the cooler and the fan drives the fresh air through the dry channels.
2. On exiting, some of the air flows into the building and the remainder is forced back through the wet channels.
3. Air passing through the wet channels is cooled by water evaporation and cools the channel surface, before being exhausted as warm, moist air.
4. The temperature of the fresh air passing through the adjacent dry channels is reduced and this cooled air is then transferred into the building without any added moisture.

The Indirect evaporative cooling heat exchanger

You might wonder if hyper efficient indirect evaporative cooling uses a lot of water during operation. The amount of water evaporated is directly proportional to the amount of cooling provided: the more water is evaporated, the cooler the air. It is inversely proportional to the humidity of the day: the less humid, the more the cooler operates, the more water is evaporated. Of course, it is directly proportional to the fan speed settings, the higher they are, the more water is evaporated.

b.     Energy saving potential

The Western Cooling Efficiency Center (WCEC) conducted a test program in Phoenix, Arizona, of a retro-fit hybrid that combined a nominal 17.5 ton rooftop packaged air conditioner (PAC) with Seeley International’s Hyper efficient indirect evaporative cooler to cool all ventilation air. The combination also included a direct evaporative cooler for the condenser air.

Under available optimised operating conditions, energy efficiency was improved dramatically with the addition of the Hyper efficient indirect evaporative cooling. Further improvements can be made by additional optimising of the selection and design of the basic refrigeration equipment.

The key findings from the test program were:

In combination:

•          The base 17.5 ton (cooling) capacity PAC (4 compressors operating) increased to 24.4 tons of cooling (up 39.75%).

•          In addition, the power reduced by 6.25%, with the addition of the indirect evaporative cooler.

•          The base EER of 9.03 for the PAC (4 compressors operating) increased to 13.8 (up 52.8%) with the addition of the Hyper efficient indirect evaporative cooler and condenser pre-cooling.

On its own:

•          The indirect evaporative cooler’s maximum evaporative effectiveness was 140% of wet bulb depression.

•          The indirect evaporative cooler’s average EER was 60.7

Optimal performance achieved in combination:

•          The operating condition which achieved the highest efficiency, used the PAC with only 2 compressors operating and the addition of the Hyper efficient indirect evaporative cooler and condenser pre-cooling.

•          In this configuration, the overall EER increased to 17.04 (up by 88.66%), compared to the base PAC 4 compressor performance, thereby meeting the minimum WCC performance criteria.[4]

Cooling increase 46kW to 54.3 kW = 18% Increase

Power Consumption 17.5 kW to  10.9 kW = 38% decrese

COP increase from 2.6 to 5.0

c.     Hyper-efficient indirect evaporative cooling and Legionella

Legionella bacteria is naturally found in moist environments such as lakes & creeks, that can have fatal consequences for humans.  If found in water, it will actively grow between a temperature range of 20-45°C.  It becomes dangerous to humans if the water is drunk or if it’s dispersed into the air as an aerosol (like from a shower) and breathed in. To contain the bacteria, aerosols must be between 1 to 5 microns in size. In the context of legionella and evaporative coolers, neither is a problem and here is why.

With high quality units such as Seeley manufacture we take care of the issue like this.

• Firstly, the process in an evaporative cooler brings the water temperature close to the wet bulb temperature, which in the UK takes us below the high risk range for legionella.

We can see from the chart that with ambient temperatures reaching up to 40°C, we very rarely exceed a water temperature over 20°C in the sump which is the bottom of the cooler. 

• Secondly, good evaporative coolers don't allow water to sit and stagnate, and have fail safe controls which stop the unit if there's a problem.  Seeley units have a WaterManagementTM system with a probe that sits in the bottom of the sump, constantly measuring the quality of the water.  Once the water goes outside this range, ie. becomes too dirty, the unit dumps the water and refills fresh.

• Moreover, in indirect evaporative coolers like the Hyper efficient indirect evaporative cooler, the so called wet channel (where evaporation occurs) is separated from the dry channel (the air stream that is supplied into the building).  

• And finally, well designed wetted media evaporative coolers don't produce any aerosol, so no water droplets are in the airstream meaning that even if the water temperature does rise, and the water was allowed to stagnate, there's still no mechanism there to transfer the bacteria to humans.

d.     Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)

Using 100% fresh outside air, Hyper efficient indirect evaporative cooling improves Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) of the buildings where it is installed. This is particularly relevant in this period, after Pandemics, when all of us are becoming more and more conscious of the importance of the air we breathe.

Traditional air conditioning units normally rely on recirculating the same stale air over and over, thus recirculating viruses, germs and pollutants. This impacts on the users’ health and well-being.

REHVA (Federation of European Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Associations) recently confirmed that ventilation measures are amongst the most important engineering controls in the infection control.[5]

Moreover, they suggest increasing ventilation rates and operation time of all air conditioning equipment, considering that the main recommendation is to always avoid recirculation, either centralized or at room level. Regarding this point, it is essential to switch air handling units with recirculation to 100% outdoor air.

The American Society for Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) is clear in its recommendation of the importance to increase in outdoor air ventilation of buildings.[6]

Indoor Air Quality becomes particularly crucial when we talk about the quality of the air our children breath. This is why we thought of bringing to your attention the case study of Southern Spain, where evaporative cooling is now mentioned and endorsed by law to improve ventilation and students’ well-being.

4.     Case study: Evaporative Cooling endorsed for schools in Southern Spain

On 13Th June 2020, The Government of Andalucía, one of the most important regions of Southern Spain, approved a law (Law 1/2020, of July 13) for the improvement of the thermal and environmental conditions of Andalusian educational centres through evaporative cooling techniques and the use of renewable energies.

On Chapter 2, Section 1, Article 3, we read “The Junta de Andalucía will carry out either assessments or energy audits of the public educational centres of the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, in order to ascertain both the energy demands of each centre and the resulting necessary corrective measures to guarantee habitable conditions, thermal comfort and necessary energy efficiency, through bioclimatic techniques and use of renewable energy.”

The assessment, undergoing now for many years, have seen most centers being in need of evaporative cooling installation (combined with solar panel to maximise efficiency). In July 2022 the Ministry of Education and Sports, through the Andalusian Public Agency for Education, had already begun works for the installation of evaporative cooling and solar panels in 30 educational centres in Cordoba (only), with an investment of more than 10 million euros, including projects and works. In total, 93 of these works are planned in the province, with an estimated budget of more than 32 million euros. Of the remaining actions, 10 have already been contracted and are pending start, 26 are in the contracting phase and 27 are in the pipeline.

Specifically, the 93 solar panel installations scheduled in the province of Córdoba will mean a global photovoltaic production of 2,600,187 kWh/year, avoiding the emission into the atmosphere of more than 1,355 tons of greenhouse gases.

32 schools and 61 institutes throughout the Córdoba province will benefit from these actions in a total of 38 municipalities.[7]

We appreciate that Southern Spain is a significantly hotter country than the UK, but in fact as we’ve seen in statistics, we are not far to reach the same temperatures.

Moreover, Carbon dioxide emissions in the public sector in Q2 2022 rose of a 2.4 % compared to Q2 2021 (and 1.4% if considering the entire year)[8].

Plus, it is not much about the cooling needs of educational centres: it is about improving Indoor Air Quality.

Climate Wizard installed in Antonio Gala School in Seville.

5.     Conclusion - Action to be taken

The air conditioning market is experiencing now what happened previously in the automotive market.

• On one hand there has been a demand for greater efficiency to limit emissions and cope with the ever-increasing cost of energy.
• On the other hand, there has been increasing demand in developing countries and the necessity to maintain and renew a huge car/unit fleet in developed countries (with the aggravating circumstance for the A/C market of global warming and the use of new “green" refrigerants less efficient than traditional ones).
• Another common element is that mature technologies have reached their technical limit concerning energy efficiency improvement of engines, compressors, and refrigeration systems. Further gains might be marginal, will concern the use of new materials or new system for energy recovery.

In the car industry, facing the challenge "better performance with less consumption” not being possible or reasonable to convert the existing fleets in short terms to a 100% electric solution, for various practical reasons, hybrid solutions are becoming popular.

The combination of an electric motor with an internal combustion engine allows to maintain performance, or even increase it, reducing consumption, emissions using a downsized petrol / diesel engine.

Similarly, we believe that in the air conditioning sector it will be necessary think about hybrid solutions, the traditional direct expansion system (DX) can be combined with an indirect evaporative cooling system (IEC), thus downsizing the total electrical installed power of the whole system (ceteris paribus). This will allow to overcome the presents a/c efficiency limit (COP -Coefficient of performance).

Unlike a car engine, however, an A/C efficiency improvement intervention can be done also on an existing plant and does not require the system replacement before the end of his useful life, with obvious advantage in term of emission reduction related to disposal of machineries and waste management.

We believe that the government should support this transition because the A/C market players (manufactures, installers, contractors, consultants, end users), as it happens in the automotive sector, might not be interest on promoting it in the first place.

Economic incentives could be linked (i.e.) to AHU global efficiency improvement and system downsizing (installed electrical power vs buildings thermal load).

Thanking you for the opportunity given to us and in the hope that our contribution has generated some interest, we remain available for any clarification and further information.

July 2023