Daikin and Nikken Sekkei among the finalists for global cooling prize

Daikin Air conditioning India Pvt. Ltd. and Daikin Industries Ltd. are pleased to be selected as a finalist of The Global Cooling Prize (GCP) together with Nikken Sekkei Ltd. This announcement was made in New Delhi, India.

The GCP is an international competition endorsed by the Indian government, Mission Innovation, and the Rocky Mountain Institute to explore technologies that can significantly reduce the climate impact of room air conditioners compared to equipment currently on the market. For this initiative, Daikin and Nikken Sekkei teamed up to propose a new concept for room air conditioning. We are honored to be selected as a finalist of this prize.

This new concept employs a technology which can achieve comfort and energy savings and at the same time ensure consistent room temperature and humidity by adequately controlling multiple indoor units in one room. Another new concept is that it utilises the vaporisation heat of water to further increase the energy efficiency of the equipment. The proposed equipment uses HFO-1234ze(E) refrigerant.
Daikin adopted an out of the box approach by controlling multiple units in one room and by choosing the refrigerant HFO-1234ze(E) which has a low GWP. However, this causes other environmental challenges such as the increased use of raw materials as a result of the larger equipment size.

Daikin’s overall refrigerant policy is to support a diversity of refrigerants. Daikin believes that R32 is the most balanced refrigerant for many applications in terms of safety, energy efficiency, economy and the environment, and that it will be the standard for the mid to long term horizon. R32 based equipment is an established technology, being sold in more than 70 countries including India.

Daikin’s participation in the Global Cooling Prize is consistent with our “Environmental Vision 2050” which provides a roadmap for the company to carbon neutrality by 2050. In line with that vision, Daikin is in a continuous search to reduce energy consumption and refrigerant impact. Our participation in the GCP is a part of that effort to examine energy efficiency technology with low GWP refrigerant alternatives.