Insights from the Eurovent PG-RDC Chairperson
Maurizio Orlandi is the Chairperson of the Eurovent Product Group ‘Commercial Refrigeration Equipment’ (PG-RDC) and Intellectual Property & Technical Compliance Manager at EPTA. He gives us details of the activities of the PG-RDC.
Could you tell us about yourself and how you got involved in the HVACR industry?
I joined EPTA in 2004 and since that time, the main focus has been the digital control of refrigeration equipment and pioneering the reinvention of CO2 as a refrigerant. Around the time I joined EPTA, we were discussing the role of inverters and EEV in saving energy for remote refrigeration systems and my experience as a Power Electronic Designer helped me on both topics of discussion. I then took care of Innovation within EPTA R&D for some years. We got through the use of power LED for lighting as well as trying to match the results of simulation tools and the real thermodynamics and aeraulic behaviours of our refrigerated display cabinets. Those past activities, all aimed to increase efficiency and influenced the approach of all the discussions I had in the industry. My experience has grown from Eurovent Product Groups or Task Forces, down to IEC and ISO Standardisation committees that are part of my role for EPTA with the HVACR industry of today. In essence, that is how I got involved in the HVACR sector.
What are the main focus points of the Product Group ‘Commercial Refrigeration Equipment’, and could you tell us about the current challenges in the sector and how the Product Group is tackling them?
We are involved in issues of legislation on our refrigeration products, these legislations have an important impact on the products, and they keep discussions with manufacturers alive and full of insights. It is shaping the industry, and we must understand the current acts and the coming proposals, bringing the industry’s point of view, to make those rules work in a business-wise direction. However, the concrete application is always challenging when the real world kicks in.
Our products, before anything else, must be safe and reliable. We cannot have distractions on this but at the same time, they have to be sustainable. Ecodesign and Energy Labelling are the steps we have taken so far but the work on calculating all the impacts of our product is not finished, starting from carbon footprint.
Talking of challenges, sustainability is not the only issue. We are in a fast-changing global scenario with the concrete possibility that abrupt changes will arrive again and even faster. So our focus shall be to increase resiliency, reduce dependencies, and at the same time, not step back on all the other aspects of sustainability and efficiency – a definitive challenge.
Could you elaborate on what the Eurovent Recommendation 14/7 – Market surveillance for direct sales refrigerators, focuses on and who could benefit from it?
Firstly, I have to give thanks to all the PG-RDC participants. With their contributions, we were able to provide a document whose aim is to give guidance and help the MSA national authorities. We focused on collecting all the information and assumptions that industry experts take when applying the testing methods and the checks we would conduct on product documentation to make verifications. We did our best in support of market verification, a fundamental part of any regulation, clearly defining which products are to be placed on the market. We believe that our Recommendation can help a fair competition for the benefit of all the stakeholders, manufacturers, users and, at the very end, all the citizens doing shopping.
The Eurovent Recommendation 14/7 is available for download free of charge in the Eurovent Document Library.