Miriam Solana Cipres provides essential divisions that women can tap into and contribute to when they join the HVACR industry. She furthermore encourages women to join the industry and also sheds light on how she defines success.
What do you think we can do to support and encourage more women to join our industry?
We are lucky to work in a sector where a great diversity of areas are covered, and very different profiles are welcome. Enthusiasm for technology will find lots of stimuli by understanding and working on the thermodynamics behind HVACR systems. Women fascinated by digital trends will find satisfaction by contributing to the development of more automated equipment and experts in the economy will have a fundamental role in maximising the profits of HVACR companies. Internal and external communication is essential to make known the new developments and general updates. These are just some examples, as the list of capacities and knowledge areas that one can apply in our sector is very long.
The work in the HVACR sector is also very stimulating because we contribute to improving everyday lives. For instance, we are working to improve the comfort and health of people by providing technologies that not only allow to keep a comfortable temperature and humidity but also enhance indoor air quality. Moreover, thanks to our work, food conservation is guaranteed and extended with the consequent benefits due to the lower waste of food. HVACR systems are essential also in industrial processes because the control of temperature and humidity is a fundamental part of them. Another example is data centres, where most IT devices and equipment produce heat and need to get rid of it quickly, so their performance is not affected.
We are also working for the preservation of the environment through the implementation of technologies that help in the reduction of CO2 emissions. For example, we research alternative solutions to the use of harmful refrigerants. Additionally, our work is essential in the development and implementation of heat pumps, which are a key technology to avoid emissions from fuel gas boilers. We also work to increase the performance of HVACR equipment, with consequent electricity consumption savings and reduction of CO2 emissions.
In essence, women will find lots of possibilities and stimulus to work in the HVACR sector, and this message should be spread to make them aware of the variety of opportunities and encourage them to join our industry.
What is your personal definition of success?
Success is a feeling that is present the whole day, from the morning to the night. There are different cases, thus success can be measured in different ways, but if we refer to an adult who works and receives a salary from that, this can be an example of what I consider success:
In the morning, when the alarm clock sounds, success can be measured by how strong the motivation is to get up and go to work. In my opinion, learning something new every day is essential, because this makes you increase your professional and personal baggage, and gives the stimulus to improve, namely being every day better than the previous one.
In the afternoon or during working hours in general, success is correlated with collaboration. Working in a team in which there is respect and where there are no barriers to doing your activities in a good atmosphere is an important part of success.
In the evening, success can be correlated with reward. It is important to be fairly paid for the work done and enjoy the part of work ‘out of work’. In this respect, it is important to highlight that European women earn 13,0% on average less per hour than men, which is one of the pending tasks to be solved.
At night, success is correlated with achieved objectives. When one goes to bed, it is important to feel usefulness, which means being aware that you have contributed with your knowledge to improve something, achieving objectives that can be useful also in the future for other people. In essence, success is a combination of feelings that make working life enriched day-by-day and in consequence life in general happier.
