Right temperature, RH and filtration are key factors in thermal control 

Thermal comfort no longer remains as a luxury nowadays. Indoor air quality is extremely important considering the level of pollution outside.

Your say on the current size of the global thermal management market during these changing times. 

Thermal Management is vast and there are various opportunities available globally. The entire world is changing rapidly so the thermal management technologies. New technologies are paving their ways in this segment. The market size is huge and it’s increasing day by day. Thermal comfort no longer remains as luxury nowadays. Lot of effort is being made to make it more affordable. 

Key factors that majorly influence the thermal management market. 

As I said, thermal comfort no longer remains a luxury. Due to rapid urbanisation the need for thermal comfort is increasing. Changing climate conditions are also a key influencing factor for opportunities in the thermal management market. Health and hospitality sector is slowly penetrating in more and more remote areas. The need for thermal comfort is there in both these sectors. 

What are the opportunities for the existing players and for those who are planning to enter various stages of the thermal management value chain? 

The opportunities are many. Thermal comfort is no longer related to temperature. It has other elements like relative humidity, and indoor air quality. In each aspect there are opportunities available. The opportunity in new, innovative product development to take care of thermal comfort needs at the affordable prices as well as with higher energy efficiency, is one of the areas. Systems implementation and integration to give seamless and excellent experience is another area. These systems have to be sustainable on a long term basis. Hence, maintenance of the same is another area. Indoor air quality is extremely important considering the level of pollution outside. The COVID-19 has increased its importance exponentially. 

Covid had an impact on the thermal management market. What opportunities are available post pandemic? 

CoVID-19 definitely had an impact on this market but on the positive side. Thermal management played a significant role in these times. It has played a significant role in – 

• Creation of COVID 19 facilities 
• Setting up ICUS, Wards in hospitals for COVID 19 treatment 
• Uninterrupted support for Pharma facilities to manufacture the medicines 
• Uninterrupted support for cold storages to preserve various foods 
• Uninterrupted support to data centres and other critical facilities so that we can communicate to each other seamlessly, and many more. 

Going forward, the demands of new health care facilities are growing and hence there will be demand in thermal management. A lot of facilities are going through retrofit to take care of indoor air quality post COVID-19 to reduce the spread of infections. 

Best practices suitable for maintaining thermal control in large public spaces such as airports, malls etc. 

Maintaining right temperature, relative humidity (RH) and filtration are key factors in thermal control in any space including large spaces. Ensuring the right filtration arrangement, proactive maintenance of the systems and instruction of the UVGI system are some of the best practices. UVGI technology is gaining a lot of momentum these days. This is one of the simple and effective solutions without much of a retrofit in existing systems. 

In view of comfort for occupants what new feature could be incorporated in the design for proper ventilation considering safety protocol? 

The rate of ventilation will be one aspect which will be considered in design. Much focus will be given on control of inside conditions and hence the building management system integration will be the key. The equipment selections will also have some impact as filtration will be given prime importance. The introduction of technologies like UVGI will also be added as a new feature in design.