Next year’s InstallerSHOW will see us mark new territory as for the first time we partner with World Refrigeration Day to hold a series of events for the colder side of the HVAC industry.
The partnership has come about through fortuitous timing because in 2024, the day chosen to mark World Refrigeration Day, 26th June, falls right in the middle of the show. It is serendipity for us as show organisers because we had intended next year’s show to include more ‘cold-side’ activity, to mark the increasing importance of looking at heating and cooling in buildings in an integrated fashion – and of course heat pump technology is at the forefront of helping to bridge the gap between sectors.
It is also serendipity for the people who are involved with WRD (and you need to become familiar with the abbreviation, because spelling it out uses up a lot of space), as it provides a central venue for cooling industry people in the UK and further afield to come together on 26th June to meet, network and learn.
Among the events that are planned for day two of the show at the NEC will be the first full gathering of the International Women in Cooling (INWIC) network, a group set up to bring women in all parts of the industry together to share experiences and to gain a collective voice. There are more developments to announce on this front shortly.
As if to underline the good timing, 26th June, 2024 marks the bicentenary of the person whose birthday was chosen to signify the annual day of recognition, Lord Kelvin, William Thomson, who is often described as the ‘father of refrigeration.’
Now, those who haven’t come into contact with World Refrigeration Day yet might wonder why a day dedicated to cooling has become such a big deal. And make no mistake it is a big deal – it is very much a global phenomenon, which saw hundreds of events around the world this year.
Simply put, in the space of only five years, since its conception in 2018, WRD has become a focal point for recognising the importance of cooling to the wider world. Although it uses the word ‘refrigeration’, the aim of WRD as an annual day of recognition is to show the outside world the importance to day-to-day life of cooling in all its forms – whether it is keeping food fresh in refrigerators and freezers; keeping people healthy in hospitals and other healthcare settings; keeping building occupants cool and comfortable or, keeping data centres running at a temperature that keeps internet-based activity going round the clock. And, as many people in the industry will tell you, that list doesn’t take into account a whole host of other less talked-about applications, ranging from fruit ripening to cooling manufacturing processes and on to vaccine storage, and mortuaries and beyond.
The bit about telling the outside world is very important to the founders of World Refrigeration Day, as the intention is to get away from an industry simply ‘talking to itself’. Thus there is often emphasis on engaging with the public and local communities and in ‘spreading the word’. The opportunity to share experiences with all the other industries in InstallerSHOW, such as heating, energy and kitchens & bathrooms, will be particularly welcomed.
Those who know me will appreciate that for me personally, the introduction of more cooling activity is a particularly exciting development. For a start, it will enable me to involve colleagues who I worked with when I edited the industry magazine RAC and hosted the Cooling Awards – some of you old InstallerSHOW hands might be amazed to learn that there are folk working exclusively on the cold side who don’t yet know quite what an inspirational and successful show is taking place at the NEC every year.
But I think that the introduction of WRD and more cooling-related activity, will provide another significant benefit, and a benefit that will impact many people who are already involved with the show, or are considering it: it will enable us to show that low-carbon technologies can work together for the benefit of the building owner or operator – whether that is heating and cooling working side by side, or in a fully integrated fashion; whether with heat pumps or using heat recovery or smart controls or whatever technology is appropriate. The 2024 theme of World Refrigeration Day, Temperature Matters, has clearly been chosen to recognise the growing need for connections between the heating and the cooling sectors. More collaboration can only help to help us on the journey to net zero, so let’s embrace the cold side.
