ACR Journal

April 2022 | May 2022 NEWS 04 Volume 8 No.3 30-YEARMILESTONE FOR RACHELWALES Customers have led the praise for Panasonic regional sales manager Rachel Wales, who is celebrating her 30th anniversary with the business. Jose Alves, UK country manager for Panasonic Heating & Cooling. said: “Rachel is highly regarded and respected throughout the industry. Her passion and drive, coupled with her wealth of knowledge, experience and exceptional customer service, is admirable. It’s great to have a strong female presence in the management team with so much knowledge and experience. Rachel is a great inspiration to the younger members and helps nurture them with many going to Rachel for advice.. She is always open to listening and a good sounding board for the team as well as her customers.” Rachel started out in the industry when she first left school at the age of 17, working for a small refrigeration contractor, Barnet Refrigeration, as an office junior, prior to starting at AMP (now Panasonic Heating & Cooling) in 1992, where she quickly developed into a successful sales executive for the company. Her passion for the industry grew along with her customer base – some of whom are still customers today. Tony Sayer of AAC has known Rachel since he was 21, with both starting in the industry at around the same time. He said: “Rachel really cares about her customers and the service she and the business provides – if she says she will get something done, you know it will be. I believe this is why she has such great customer retention.” Mark Harris, managing director of Air Intelligence, said: "I have known and worked with Rachel for over 35 years. When I set up my own company 10 years ago, Rachel and the team were very supportive and reliable. I know that if I call Rachel up, she will always be there with an immediate response to help with any technical advice. as well as a friendly face. Rachel and the team are always polite and nice people to do business with – a rare thing these days.” Rachel said: “I feel incredibly lucky, as I love my job and the work I do. Over the years I have forged long-term friendships in the industry and seen and worked with many small family-run businesses and watched them grow and develop as I have. I might have started out with the father of the family being the customer and then that business has grown and been passed on to their children, whom I have watched and nurtured through their journey.” Speaking ahead of the recent International Women's Day, Rachel added: “As a female in a very male-dominated industry, I had to work hard prove myself in those early days. This came with time and once I had demonstrated my abilities and helped resolve their problems, the confidence in me grew. I am looking forward to passing on my experience in the industry to the other members of the team, to grow and develop them and the business further. I want to encourage more females into the industry and particularly younger teammembers to help grow the industry – I always like a challenge.’’ Climalife white paper on low GWP options Climalife has launched a white paper for the UK market, Which low GWP option could be used for my refrigerant application? With increasing pressure on the industry to drive down the collective average GWP of the refrigerants in use, it can be a challenge to know which refrigerant will be best for a particular application. Written by senior technical sales manager Neil Roberts, the white paper looks at how different low GWP refrigerants are likely to operate in various applications based on either theoretical cycle calculations or equipment manufacturers’ data; what standards and regulations apply and what is required for compliance with the standards and regulations. To find out more and download the white paper, visit climalife.co.uk Rachel with the themed pose for this year's International Women's Day Carrier chillers for hospital upgrade Two Carrier AquaSnap air-cooled chillers with Greenspeed Intelligence inverter speed control are providing high-performance, low noise cooling for wards and operating theatres at Royal United Hospitals Bath. The 30RBP chillers are running on lower global warming potential (GWP) refrigerant R32 as part of a major upgrade of the hospital's air conditioning system. Mounted on a new rooftop platform, the units replace two older split- system chillers by other manufacturers, significantly reducing servicing requirements and related costs due to their compact, fully packaged design. Due to the combination of variable- speed electronically commutated condenser fans, high-performance Novation heat exchangers and compressors optimised for operation with R32, the chillers have a very high seasonal energy efficiency rating (SEER) of 5.18. The N+N system design ensures a second unit is available to take over full cooling duties in the unlikely event of a failure, providing the resilience required in this critical hospital application. The chillers mounted on the new rooftop platform