Due to the recent financial turmoil, the UK?s property market is expected to continue its decline throughout 2009. However, industry experts predict that there will be some growth within the infrastructure sector over the next five years, thanks to a series of forthcoming rail, energy and ports projects. This has given some hope to those with air conditioning jobs about their financial future.

Those with air conditioning jobs have had a tough time in recent years. The summers of both 2007 and 2008 were relatively cool. As sales of smaller systems declined, larger chillers were mostly required in new-build projects. Indeed, chillers recorded their highest number of sales in 2007 and continued to do well in the first half of 2008. However, as the effects of the economic downturn started to show in the first half of 2009 and many large projects failed to materialise, sales of chillers began to dwindle. The outlook for the rest of 2009 is also bleak.

Meanwhile, sales of other products, such as close-control units, rooftop and variable-refrigerant flow (VRF) systems, have been growing since 2007. As more clients become aware of the shifts in refrigerant from R407c to R410a or R134a, thanks to recent global concerns about the depletion of the ozone layer, the market for centrifugal air conditioners continues to expand. Those with air conditioning jobs are increasingly installing systems with multiple-scroll compressors, instead of those with screw compressors. The market for reciprocating compressor is now near vanishing.

In terms of air-handling units (AHUs), sales of air-to-water systems have increased considerably since 2007 (such as chilled beams). The latest trend is to adopt systems with heat recovery, including run-around coils and thermal wheels. Specifically, the value of the fan-coil market reached ?30.9 million in 2007, a 15-percent growth from the previous year. The introduction of electronically commutated motors has enabled fan coils to compete more effectively against chilled beams.

In other words, the market is now witnessing a confrontation between fan coils and chilled beams. It is an indicator of the extent to which energy efficiency has become essential in air conditioning jobs.