Air conditioning industry suppliers continually understate performance claims according to the Australian Duct Manufacturer’s Alliance.
At last year’s annual general meeting of the Australian Duct Manufacturer’s Alliance (ADMA), chairman Paul Sterling described how suppliers are flagrantly ignoring Australian standards and specifier’s requirements.
He lays blame on the government as well as industry for failing to end the practice.
ADMA regularly receives phone calls from non-ADMA members within the industry reporting negative practices of ADMA members, he told the Alliance’s 2011 annual general meeting late last year – a message he had also given at the previous year’s AGM.
Over an extended period, there have been concerns raised over the consistency and quality of flexible duct in relation to construction, fire ratings and thermal performance. Unregulated, non compliant, non fire rated, under-insulated flexible duct and insulation is imported into the country from Asia by flexible duct installation contractors and flexible duct manufacturers, then installed into commercial buildings, schools and homes, Sterling noted.
Issues he outlined include:
- Australians are being put out of work due to unregulated, non compliant, under-insulated flexible duct being imported
- non fire rated duct is being installed into homes and buildings where fire rated duct is required by the Building Code of Australia
- Australian consumer’s safety put at risk
- Australian consumers are not getting what they are paying for
- Industry wide overstatement of thermal values of flexible duct by flexible duct manufacturers and distributors.
At a meeting in Melbourne in 2006, hosted by the Australian Greenhouse Office (AGO), in conjunction with the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission, the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) and Trades Practices Organisation, the flexible duct industry was advised the government were aware of the widespread national lack of conformance and regulation regarding the thermal performance of flexible duct. However, these government bodies advised the flexible duct industry to self regulate as they did not have the expertise or an understanding of the many complexities involved with determining the thermal ratings (R values) of flexible duct.
Following discussions with the AGO, the Heating and Cooling Association of Australia (HCAA), as part of the Master Plumbers and Mechanical Services Association of Australia (MPMSAA), set up a not-for-profit company in 2008: the Australian Duct Manufacturers Alliance (ADMA).
With 40 to 60 per cent of an average consumer’s power bill spent on heating or cooling their home the government’s continued lack of support for an industry self regulatory body was becoming increasingly urgent Sterling said.
Due to misinterpretation of the current Standard and blatant non compliance by some suppliers, ADMA aims to develop an industry wide standard test to determine the effective composite duct thermal resistance (Rt or REFF) for assembled flexible duct and implement a system for random testing of flexible duct sold in Australia to ensure compliance with the BCA and Australian Standards. The organisation would then develop a self-regulated system of addressing non-compliance to the required standards for all manufacturers and distributors of flexible duct.
To achieve this ADMA needs to represent the flexible duct manufacturing industry via a single voice in lobbying submissions to the government, AGO, ABCB, Australian Standards and other regulatory authorities.
“It frustrates me that the majority of the world is trying to make all manufactured products more energy efficient, whilst the majority of my own industry is doing its best to do the opposite,” Sterling said.
“All too regularly we hear of another Australian manufacturing company closing down because of cheaper imports.
I find it hard to believe that Australian duct manufacturers can’t see the writing on the wall, with every month that passes without mandatory regulation on our product is another collective nail in every Australian duct manufacturers’ coffin.”
In his presentation to the AGM he outlined unfounded claims from flexible duct manufacturers and importers including that the duct is fully fire-rated; that Australian Standard AS4254:2002 is a voluntary standard. Claims are also made of thermal ratings impossible to achieve on flexible ducting given the thermal blanket used on the product and the flexible duct meets standards superseded by AS4254 in 1995 which is not mandated in the BCA and only creates confusion in the marketplace.
The first answer to the problem, believes Sterling and ADMA, is whether the government will mandate the labelling of flexible duct via the Australian Standards revised version of AS:4254.1 2012.
The as-yet unpublished version of AS4254, currently at public comment stage, proposes mandatory labelling of flexible duct and defines and refines the testing and reporting requirements for flexible duct leaving little open to interpretation or opinion of duct manufacturers/suppliers.
The proposed revision would require duct manufacturers/suppliers to provide transparency and accountability for its products, as has been the case for just about every other commonly used building product.
Once flexible duct is labelled it can be regulated by auditors under the Trade Practices Act or by the ACCC. Any supplier of flexible duct, distributing duct that is not what it purports to be, could be taken to task.