TRANE: BUILDING OWNERS SHOULD HELP REDUCE CARBON EMISSIONS

By Zakaria Abdul Wahab

SINGAPORE, June 29 (Bernama) –- Building owners and industrial plants can
help cut carbon emissions and make the world greener if they improved the energy
efficiency of their air-conditioning or cooling equipment.

According to Trane, a US-based company that offers green air-conditioning
solutions, air-conditioning consumed the bulk of energy supply in buildings or
industrial plants.

Pay Ngiap Poh, vice-president of Trane Commercial Systems for Asia, said
air-conditioning usually accounted for about 60 per cent of electricity bill.

"But with improved energy efficiency in air-conditioning, they could save a
lot on energy cost," he told Bernama at the ongoing World Cities Summit expo in
Suntec here Tuesday.

He said the global trend now was that many countries were getting more
concerned about climate change, and industries and buildings were encouraged to
reduce carbon emissions.

Pay said the world benchmark for a building with a good air-conditioning
system was that the chiller used less than 0.6 kilowatt of electricity for per
tonne of refrigeration.

"Most of the buildings in Asia are above the world benchmark, and this does
not augur well for the global environment," he said.

He said Trane has made in-roads into Malaysia as several buildings, such as
the Kuala Lumpur City Centre and Penang Times Square, had upgraded their chiller
plants with its air-conditioning solutions and had already benefited from the
return on investments.

He said the company’s annual turnover in Malaysia was around RM100 million
(US$30.7 million) (US$1=RM3.24), and it expected a 50 per cent growth this year.

Pay said Trane, which also manufactured heating, ventilating and air-
conditioning equipment, has a 45 per cent market share in chiller sales in
Malaysia, with rivals Carrier and York taking up the rest.

–- BERNAMA