The HVAC&R community is such a patchwork of different industries, technologies and services that it’s easy to lose sight of the main game.
This was made abundantly clear in the Cold Hard Facts 2 (CHF2) report which measures the size and value of Australia’s Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (RAC) sector.
The CHF2 data actually gives real meaning to the industry proving that the RAC sector is a massive enterprise that makes a substantial contribution to the Australian economy.
Without this kind of data its difficult to really understand the significance of HVAC&R and how this industry reaches into the daily life of every Australian.
But as the CHF2 report points out: “...this is a major industry largely unknown to the public. Refrigeration, like lighting and hot water services, is a cross cutting technology that is present in, and facilitates every other industry...to some extent these systems are found in every building, home and industry.”
It’s as if we are talking about a ‘secondary industry’ - a sub sector facilitating almost everyone and everything, but not seen as a stand-alone enterprise, all of its own.
CHF2 goes on to say: “Even more invisible is the huge investment in air conditioning that makes the high rise towers of our cities habitable and keps telecommunication centres and Internet server farms in operation. Air conditioning has become almost as ubiquitous a presence in modern Australia as refrigeration. Yet the Australian public has little knowledge of the industry, and does not relate to it as an industry in any meaningful way.”
This is so absolutely true.
I know it is an uncomfortable admission to make, but it is this lack of “community-wide connection” that makes it so hard for this industry to be as influential as it actually should be.
We’re talking about an industry that is responsible for transporting nearly $30 billion of perishable foods per annum, provides $13.3 billion in wages each year while a whopping $26.2 billion was spent on RAC equipment and services last year alone.
This is just a few of the impressive figures included in this informative report.
According to CHF2 this “obscurity” is partly due to the historical development of RAC technology.
But an even bigger factor is the role it plays “in almost every other enterprise or activity as a service, an input, not generally as the main economic game.” No wonder we lose sight of the big picture.
There is no other game, RAC is the main game.
Unfortunately, it’s everyone else that needs to be reminded of this, which is why reports such as CHF2 are so important.
They deliver a much-needed reality check.
