The ‘Jonix Cube’ is a sleek, white gadget that bears a close resemblance to the Apple Power Mac G4 cube computer. The latest invention of Italian air-conditioning specialist The Galletti Group, the Jonix is easily the most striking air purifier in the market today.
Compared to other chunky, merely functional machines, the Jonix seeks to be something its owners would proudly display in their living rooms or offices.
All it takes is a touch of the button for the Jonix to start ridding the air of bacteria, mould, viruses, tiny pollutants and unpleasant odours in homes and offices – there’s no need for tinkering with filters and no expensive parts to replace, say its creators.
The Jonix is one of the many solutions and products that Galletti, a hundred-year-old firm, will be exhibiting at the first Mostra Convegno Expocomfort (MCE) Asia held at Marina Bay Sands from 2-4 September.
“Asia is a key strategic area for the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) industry, that’s why we decided to exhibit there next month,” Alessandro Zerbetto, spokesman for Galletti Group said in a recent interview.
The Jonix Cube. Image: Galletti
Galletti also hopes to bring to Asia its ‘total heat recovery’ solution, which Zerbetto says is still new to the region.
“As far as we know the total heat recovery technology is something new for the Asian market and quite interesting for those countries where the government is giving incentives for highest efficiency and energy saving plants,” he says.
The heat recovery system works by capturing heat that’s discharged from a building’s air-conditioning system and using that heat for other purposes, such as powering devices such as fans and water heaters, for example. It uses a heat exchanger, which is typically found in vehicles and factories to cool down engines or process fluid in production lines.
The system should have tremendous potential to be used in Asian countries that use air-conditioning during long, hot summers such as Hong Kong, Taiwan and China, and those in Southeast Asia that are warm and humid through the year.
Trials done by three Ngee Ann Polytechnic students in Singapore have shown that a heat recovery system can provide enough energy to heat 110 litres of water up to 40 Celsius if the family turns on the air-conditioner for eight hours continuously. This saves them S$20 monthly or S$240 yearly on their electrical bills.
The green building boom in Asia
Asia’s green building industry, while still nascent, is gaining momentum, driven by a growing concern about climate change and the environment, energy security and a desire to reduce the use of all kinds of resources.
For example, the national Green Building Council of Indonesia (GBCI), for instance, recently reported that over 100 building managers had reached out to it in order to apply for green building certification.
The Hong Kong Green Building Council BEAM Plus rating system, established in 2010, now has more than 550 building projects either rated or registered.
Similarly, Singapore is committed to greening the city’s infrastructure, offering attractive incentives for building owners to adopt sustainable practices and implementing a comprehensive rating system for buildings.
Currently, 28 per cent of Singapore’s built area is certified ‘green’ by the Building and Construction Authority, and the Authority has set an ambitious target of greening 80 per cent of all buildings in the city-state by 2030.
The sustainable growth of cities in Asia and Africa – which the United Nations says will account for 86 per cent of global growth in urban population – will also boost the green building industry in these regions as governments try to cope with the influx of new residents into cities.
It is against this backdrop that MCE organiser Reed Exhibitions is bringing the show to Asia. It hopes that more European companies can bring their expertise to the region, and help local building owners adopt the latest urban solutions. The MCE show will hone in on primarily four main themes: cooling, water, and renewable energy and heating. A geo-clone of the renowned MCE event held in Milan, Italy for the past 55 years, it will present the latest technologies and most innovative solutions from across the world in these four sectors.
The inaugural MCE Asia 2015 will focus on what Reed Exhibitions call “global comfort technology” and energy efficiency – the lowest-hanging fruit for all building owners looking to reduce their costs and enhance their building assets.
The show will be co-located with Build Eco Xpo (BEX) Asia, the premier green building trade show for the region. These shows are part of the Singapore Green Building Week – in its seventh run this year – an event that will play host to global green building experts, policy-makers, academics and other practitioners to discuss ideas about the green building movement.
Galletti will use the MCE Asia show as a platform to show off some of its turnkey solutions.
“We are not displaying products only,” Zerbetto says. “Our offerings are defined as “360°” because we provide solutions, which means that we supply products for HVACR but services as well.”
The company will be showing the solutions at work in three real-life settings: a hotel, a shopping mall, and a data centre. The products include Flat I, a wall mounted fan coil with an inverter drive motor; Evo Display, a user panel monitoring and controlling fan coils; and UC, a modulating compressing unit for commercial refrigeration.
Most of Galletti’s products are designed to reach high efficiency by using Brushless Direct Current (BLDC) devices ssuch as fans, pumps, compressors, dedicated control and monitoring strategies and total heat recovery systems, Zerbetto says.
The HVAC industry is increasingly using brushless devices because they need a lot less power to operate them, compared to the traditional alternating current (AC) motor. Brushless devices are also more stable, less noisy and lighter.
“The main benefit is that when used together, whether the system is used in offices, or factories, or homes, the different products work remarkably efficiently,” Zerbetto says.
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The sustainable growth of cities in Asia and Africa – which the United Nations says will account for 86 per cent of global growth in urban population – will also boost the green building industry in these regions as governments try to cope with the influx of new residents into cities.
The BLDC motors help the entire system work efficiently at partial loads and the total heat recovery system doesn’t waste energy when in need of cooling and heating at the same time, he adds.
The energy efficient solutions and products will be perfect for Asia, which is fast adopting sustainable practices, Zerbetto says.
“MCE Asia will be a great platform for us to bring our cutting-edge solutions to Asian audiences, and we are looking forward to the discussions and opportunities to learn about a new booming market,” he adds.
Galletti – and hundreds of other exhibiting companies – will be at BEX Asia and MCE Asia 2015, to be held at Marina Bay Sands from 2-4 September. More than 11,000 visitors are expected and more than 550 exhibiting companies will be on site to showcase their latest innovations in green building technology. Click to register for these trade shows:
MCE Asia 2015: www.mcexpocomfort-asia.com
BEX Asia 2015: www.bex-asia.com
