It seems that office workers, pinned to their desks all day, rarely have the time or inclination to lift their heads and assess their office environment, not to mention the connection between that environment and global enterprise. But in today's topic of controls on CFCs, the relationship between the two irrepressibly makes itself felt.

Air conditioning is one example.

Money alone can't make you cool:

According to statistics, of the air conditioning facilities currently in office buildings and factories in the Taiwan area, about half of the total tonnage (about 3-4,000 units) uses central air conditioning of the type commonly known as centrifugal. Centrifugal chiller A/C runs from 100 tons to several thousands of tons per unit. For an office building with over 10,000 ping of floor space, a single centrifugal chiller machine is adequate. These also save time and money when it comes to purchase, operation, and maintenance. Thus for a time they were the hottest item on the market, and the office buildings and factories of many large corporations opted for this model of air temperature control.

Regrettably, the refrigerant used in centrifugal chiller air conditioners is CFC-11, which is already controlled, and will be completely banned in three years. Even worse, whereas your average home air conditioner, properly maintained, can go five to eight years without adding refrigerant, the centrifugal chiller type are not so fortunate.

"Large machines create large vibrations, and it is easy for the refrigerant to leak out. Add to this that the ducts are packed into the structure of the building, and the ducts are long, with many joints and frequent changes in direction, and the result is that leakage of refrigerant is pretty much unavoidable," says Chen Ho-kuei, chairman of a freezer company. In particular, large machines have to have the lubricant changed once a year without fail, which simultaneously allows some of the refrigerant which has become mixed in with the lubricant to escape.

Of course, it costs more than NT$1000 to change the refrigerant in a small automobile, so you could be talking figures in the millions for adding refrigerant to a super-sized central air conditioning system. Even for two or three years, this is a rather large burden on any company. What's more, CFC refrigerant is about to be banned, so that enterprises will immediately face the problem of being unable to buy it at any price. Once the A/C goes out, without even mentioning the effect on the working mood of the typical office worker, the consequences would be especially disastrous at factories that require maintenance of a constant temperature and humidity level.

A race of technology against time:

With things having gone this far, and seeing as it is impossible to replace or move the original ducts, the only thing that can be done is to replace the centrifugal chiller units with ones that use HCFC-22 or HFC-134a, like reciprocating chiller type air conditioners. But the cost of replacement comes to some very serious figures.

"Generally speaking, every six to eight ping of space in an office building requires one ton. A twenty story building with 500 ping per floor needs about l,500 tons of air conditioning," estimates Tseng Tseng-hsiang, executive at an air conditioner company. Even just to change the main unit costs about NT$10,000 per ton. In other words, the cost of replacing the air conditioning system in the above-mentioned 10,000 ping building would start at NT$15 million!

To change or not to change? "It's like being ill--you're afraid that an operation will be painful, but afraid that not having the operation would be fatal," says one operator, saying what many others undoubtedly now feel. Some people say it's best to "wait and see." You can never tell if new technology might not be developed within a year or two that would permit one to just pump in a different refrigerant while preserving the main centrifugal chiller unit. But if that day never comes, and the air conditioners in offices and factories grind to a halt, what then?

This is an intense race between technology and time, with countless people waiting breathlessly on the outcome.

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To change or not to change? Centrifugal skyscraper air conditioners are facing a rough time ahead. (photo by Diago Chiu)