SEER

Over the last few years Temperzone News has run stories on Shoulder Season or Part Load Efficiency. While Autumn and Spring highlight the importance of part load efficiency, in reality virtually all air conditioning equipment operates at loads less than its MEPS rated load for more than 90 percent of the time.

In January this year the “Energy Rating” organisation announced that from April next year a standardised method of calculating the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) will come into play. Energy Rating, which is a joint venture between the New Zealand and Australian governments is trying to provide a realistic model of the energy consumption of an air conditioning unit over a year of operation.

SEER calculation takes into account geographic location and seasonal load. Australia and New Zealand are split into three climate Zones: Hot – Which includes Brisbane, Darwin and the Pacific Islands, Mixed - which includes Sydney , Adelaide and Perth and Cold - which includes Melbourne, Canberra, Hobart and all of New Zealand.

The SEER calculation model includes multiple points of part load for each geographic location. Put simply, when the outdoor temperature varies, so too does the energy efficiency of an air conditioner. This means a unit operating in the tropics has a different energy efficiency to the identical unit operating in Tasmania or New Zealand.

An example of the how this plays out it is with Temperzone’s OSA 184 Eco ULTRA. This unit is an 18kW light commercial, Inverter Ducted unit. It has the following MEPS efficiency rating AEER Cooling of 3.10 and ACOP of 3.27

However, when part load efficiency is taken into account in the SEER calculation, we end up with a commercial SEER in the mixed zone of 3.93 and in the cold zone of 4.5!

So what is happening here? The AEER figures are designed to rate all equipment at a single, common point of load. The SEER takes into account additional variables to give a more comprehensive understanding of how energy efficient an Air Conditioner is over the course of an entire year.

While most conventional air conditioning systems are typically optimised for full-load operation (thereby maximising energy consumption) the Eco ULTRA’s outstanding performance at part load operation enables significant energy savings. This design allows the unit to operate at high efficiency levels at times of reduced demand.

SEER is a measure of the Energy Efficiency of air conditioning equipment across a whole year’s duty cycle. One way to view SEER is that it is a measure of how well an air conditioning system manages a range of part load conditions.

The Eco ULTRA’s variable speed compressor ensures your HVAC system runs efficiently at all load levels. The result is high AEER and extremely high SEER (a measurement of efficiency at variable work loads). Our leading variable speed technology ensures the unit perfectly matches the load required.

Temperzone’s development of its Eco and Eco ULTRA series of equipment are designed to maximise part load efficiency by careful combinations of variable components like Inverter Compressors, Variable speed Supply Air Fans and EEV all controlled via our UC7 and UC8 control boards.

Temperzone have been working towards the balance between flexibility and control that delivers improved efficiency across the whole duty cycle.

If you would like to see more of our Eco and Eco ULTRA product make sure you come and visit us at ARBS.