The Federal Government is set to launch a special report into Australia's refrigeration sector in a bid to more effectively manage the industry over the next decade.
The report, which is entitled "Cold Hard Facts 2" follows the release of Cold Hard Facts in June 2007.
Release of the original report was a milestone for industry as it was the first time any attempt had been made to calculate Australia's installed base of refrigerating systems.
Refrigeration technology is so integral to modern life that understanding the role, scale, value and economic relevance of refrigeration to Australia is no small task.
The release of Cold Hard Facts 2 is just as significant and the consultants commissioned to research this report will deliver the keynote address at CCN Live on August 8, 2013.
The data, which will provide exclusive insight into systems and applications across the country, will be presented by research firm the Expert Group.
Commissioned by the Department of Sustainability to underake the report, the Expert Group worked with Thinkwell Australia to provide this snapshot of Australia's refrigeration and air conditioning industry using an extensive stock model developed over seven years.
Expert Group managing director Peter Brodribb and Thinkwell Australia managing director Michael McCann, said the stock model was built up using primary data sources including imports of precharged equipment, sales data, bulk gas imports and interview with manufacturers to determine just how much equipment is out there.
After completing more than a dozen major research projects into aspects of the industry and various supply chains that deliver equipment to customers, they refined the model and made mountains of data more manageable by designing a "Taxonomy of the Technology."
This is basically a system for categorising all of the various product formats into manageable data bins.
Future economic studies will be able to use this taxonomy as a framework as the industry starts to build up longtitudinal studies that can compare changes in different areas of the industry.
"Apples with apples comparisons is what has been partly missing in the past from the point of view of having industry wide economic and activity data," McCann said.
"Cold Hard Facts 2 goes a long way towards that. Economic planners need to have as much certainty about the data they are getting as geographers, if they don't understand what they are seeing they are simply not going to go there.
"We hope this report and the taxonomy will help make the industry more accessible to economists and policy makers and give industry a benchmark to compare changes over time to the size and value of their activity."
McCann has been researching the HVACR industry for more than a decade and was also involved in the original Cold Hard Facts report.
Brodribb has more than 20 years of specialist expertise and has worked with blue chip firms such as Heatcraft and Honeywell. He has a degree in mechanical engineering as well as an MBA.
