Chillventa country report: FRANCE
- Industry occupied with new government decree
- Large existing stocks of HCFC refrigerants
- Record boom in home and heat pump segments
The French refrigeration and air conditioning market is booming with record growth in the home segment and the heat pump market literally exploded in 2006. This mainly concerns the home air conditioning market, with over 90 % of the units sold being reversible solutions for heating and cooling.
However, the industry is currently mainly occupied with a new government decree that came into force on 7 May 2007. The consequences of this decree, whose overriding goal is to reduce emissions from refrigeration and air conditioning plants, particularly affect the refrigeration plant assemblers, whose qualifications will be checked considerably more strictly in future than previously the case.
The new decree 2007-737
Decree no. 2007-737 relating to various refrigerants used in refrigeration and air conditioning equipment came into force on 7 May 2007. It defines regulations for improving the leak tightness of plants and makes distributors and producers of refrigerants responsible for the return, recovery, recycling and disposal of refrigerants. It also involves the operator more than previously the case, as he is responsible for the regular inspection and leak tightness of his plants and their maintenance by qualified specialist personnel.
The biggest revolution concerns the refrigeration plant assemblers, however. According to stricter and exactly defined regulations, they must be certified by a body separately appointed for this purpose. Only those in possession of such a certificate are allowed to handle refrigerants and intervene in the refrigeration cycle in future (w.e.f. 2009 – a temporary arrangement applies until then).
Moreover, the plant assemblers must also report at the beginning of each year on exactly how much refrigerant they purchased, used in plants and recovered from plants in the previous year. This report must exactly define the quantity reused and the quantity used for recycling. The new decree thus involves fundamental changes for the French market, which are intended to boost the expertise of the plant assemblers and put a stop to non-experts. The overriding goal is the reduction of emissions. If this is not achieved, the industry fears a coming ban on the use of HFCs (chlorofluorocarbons).
Existing refrigerants and dominance of R-22
(chlorodifluoromethane as refrigerant)
According to a study conducted at regular intervals by Ecole des Mines in Paris , existing French refrigeration and air conditioning plants still contained some 21,000 tons of R-22 or HCFC refrigerants in 2004. The key applications included industrial refrigeration with 26 %, transport air conditioning with 20 %, chillers with 18 % and commercial refrigeration with 14 %. By comparison, the existing HFC stocks were some 23,000 tons, with almost half of them (43 %) attributed to car air conditioning, followed by commercial and industrial refrigeration with 12 % each and chillers with 11 %.
The total emissions from existing plants are 3,201 tons and 43.4 % for R-22, which is particularly due to the high average age of the plants. In view of the large stocks of R-22 and the associated emissions, the study assumes that when the ban on new R-22 takes effect on 1 January 2010, acute shortages of R-22 for maintenance purposes and qualified labour for possible conversions can be expected. This can only be countered if conversions to R-22 alternatives are made immediately on the one hand and if measures are taken to ensure that qualified specialist personnel are available for efficient recovery of the refrigerant from existing plants and emissions are reduced in the long term on the other hand.
Upturn for the air conditioning industry (2)
The French air conditioning market for split and multisplit units with less than 17.5 kW output produced record growth of some 33 % in 2006, that is, 403,255 exterior units sold compared with 2005. This mainly concerns the home air conditioning market, with over 90 % of the units sold being reversible solutions for heating and cooling. Also on the advance (+74 %) are units with inverters, which prove to be especially efficient in heating mode even with low outside temperatures. The big demand in the home air conditioning segment is attributed to factors such as the upturn of renewable energy and the associated tax allowance. In 2006 at least, this applied to air/air heat pumps as well as brine/water, water/water and air/water heat pumps.
The use of reversible devices for heating and cooling also made it possible to achieve an encouraging result in the months of September to December in 2006, which were previously always relatively weak. Whereas only some 24 % of the total annual turnover was previously achieved in this period, the share in 2006 was around 30 %. The results in the larger power range above 17.5 kW for commercial use were also positive in 2006. Splits and multisplits also sold excellently here with growth of 88 % over 2005. There is also an increasing demand for VRF technology, which registered 33 % growth. The result for the chiller segment was also especially impressive. The 18,289 sold units in the less than 17 kW power range represented 159 % growth compared with 2005. These are reversible heat pumps in the home segment, which are combined with underfloor heating and officially supported by a tax allowance.
Heat pump market shows growth to be proud of
The French heat pump market registered growth of 112.4 % in 2006, i.e. altogether some 53,500 units. The survey – excluding air/air devices – originates from the French Heat Pump Association AFPAC . The largest growth of 192 % was achieved by the air/water devices, of which 35,050 were sold in 2006. This is over 23,000 more than the year before. It can be assumed that especially this segment will continue to grow rapidly in the future, which is particularly due to the lower capital cost compared with the use of geothermal energy, coupled with good efficiency. The manufacturers are also announcing equipment that can be used for producing hot water up to 65 °C. These heat pumps are intended specifically for use in existing buildings, where they can replace gas or oil burners.
According to AFPAC estimates, France with 53,500 machines is now Europe’s second largest market for heat pumps after Sweden and has thus overtaken Germany (43,886 ) and Switzerland (15,809 ). The air/water devices meanwhile lead in Switzerland with 54.9 % compared with 43.2 % for geothermal heat pumps. In Germany, however, geothermal heat pumps still clearly lead with almost two thirds of sales compared with one third for air/water devices. The ground is also preferred as heat source in Sweden. This is primarily due to the cold winters.
The French industry is, however, divided, as far as reversible air/air devices are concerned. First it was said that the former tax allowance of 40 % applied to this technology just the same as to all other heat pump technologies, but then it was explicitly excluded from the arrangement at the beginning of 2005. It was only included again at the end of 2005 after a long and hard-fought battle by the refrigeration association Snefcca. This inclusion was, however, accompanied by numerous special conditions, such as regular inspections of the devices, which did not apply to the other types of heat pump. In summer 2007, a further government decree was published that extended the restrictions on the tax allowance, which is meanwhile as high as 50 %. The dispute has not yet been finally clarified.
(1) Marché ADEME 06 74 C0060, Ref. Armines 60588. Stéphanie Barrault, Lionel Palandre, Sabine Saba, Denis Clodic, December 2006 : Inventaires des fluides frigorigènes et de leurs émissions, France – Année 2004.
(2) Source: ClimPratique 04/2007
(3) Quelle: Source: Association Française des Pompes à Chaleur, www.afpac.org
(4) Source: Bundesverband Wärmepumpe e.V., www.waermepumpe-bwp.de
(5) Source: Fördergemeinschaft Wärmepumpen Schweiz, www.fws.ch
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