They are based in Harpenden Herts and they will be offering Toshiba’s complete range of products. This is everything from splits to pump ranges.

The commercial director at Toshiba Air Conditioning, David Dunn has said, “DYSK is a well known and respected distributor in the market, and is a welcome addition to Toshiba’s growing network.

“It is a further important step in advancing our ambitions to build on the substantial growth achieved over the last two years and make Toshiba available to a wider marketplace.

“As a result of significant growth in our sakes over the past two years and anticipated growth this year, we have been able to absorb the increases in material and development costs that our competitors have passed on to customers.”

The products where they have managed to stabilise the costs are on their VRF systems, Digital Inverter, Super Digital Inverter and Estia ranges plus accessories.

Mr Dunn carried on to say, “It is obviously good news for our growing customer base, and has been welcomed enthusiastically by our distributors. With major new product launches set for this year, an expanded UK supply network, and now assurance of highly competitive prices, the elements are in place for a great year for the company.

Also coming up this year, Toshiba have a new online ordering system for spare parts for launch later on in 2012.

Mr Dunn said, “With innovative new products and services lined up for 2012, and a significantly enlarged UK distributor network, Toshiba Air Conditioning is looking forward to a third year of sustained growth.”

It is great to hear that even in the economic down turn the air conditioning industry is still experiencing growth.

This week Melbourne was host to the Air Conditioning, Refrigeration and Building Services Exhibition. Companies such as Fujitsu, Daikin, Mitsubishi Electric and LG all had new products ranges to show off and they all had one thing in common, the style. All the air conditioning units had been transformed from the traditionally white box, to sleek curves in a range of colours.

Daikin and Fujitsu have both decided on a more streamlined design, with their units having curves and all unnecessary buttons, vents and lights being removed for a minimal design and a smoother effect.
Mitsubishi Electric and LG opted for a change in colour to give consumers more choice and be able to blend the units to the decor of their homes.

Mitsubishi Electric offers the air conditioning units in black and silver. Raja Gounder, the company’s national project manager said “If you have dark walls, the black unit doesn’t stick out as much as a traditional white air conditioner.

“It has a new modern look for modern houses.

“The silver model has also been designed to fit into rooms such as the kitchen, where there are lots of stainless steel appliances.”

LG are offering a similar design for the same reasons with a mirror finish air conditioning unit.

Hopefully this new style of air conditioning units will encourage more and more people to have them in their homes and offices. This will enable better conditions during those hotter months of the year.

Last month we launched a follow and retweet competition on our twitter account @GTRefrigeration. So far we have had an amazing amount of entries but we still need more!

The competition ends just in time for you to receive the mini fridge and stock it up with goodies before the European Championship starts. If you love football and refrigeration as much as we do, this is an opportunity not to be missed.

The competition ends on Sunday the 20th of May and the winner will be announced on Monday 21st. If this sounds like a prize for you then get to our twitter page and simply follow us and then retweet the competition.

So far we have had over 1000 entries but don’t let this put you off. The winner will be chosen at random and no matter how many times you retweet the competition you only get one place so everyone has an equal chance, so don’t feel bad if you are a late comer!
Good luck and get tweeting.

So the day is nearly over and we still have half a month’s rain to come in the next few hours. In the UK, this is expected to be the wettest day of the year with a predicted months worth of rain to fall in just 24 hours.

There have been four severe weather warnings across the UK as the high winds and heavy rain will be carried over the country for what looks like could be till the later part of tomorrow afternoon. Weather forecasters are also predicting that our April showers won’t end at the end of the month; they look set to continue into May.

The worst hit areas are expected to be in Eastern Scotland and in the South of England. Unlucky for us!
Paul Michaelwhite, a weather forecaster has said, “It’s an April washout rather than April showers as unusually deep, autumnal type Atlantic low pushes across the South.

“This is an unusually active depression for the time of year, as the Atlantic is traditionally at its quietest during mid-to-late spring.”

This is the complete opposite, however, to what is going on, on the other side of the world in New Mexico. They are experiencing the most uncomfortable temperatures. It has been reported that the student housing in Cervantes Village’s air conditioning isn’t programmed to come on till the last day April and many students have to sleep on their tiled floors just to keep cool. A lady who lives in the village has said her daughter has woken up with nose bleeds from the humidity and dry air.

The housing officials say it takes 4 weeks to switch all 900 of the air conditioning units and although the process has started, the residents need to be patient as they are not at fault for temperatures reaching 15 degrees what is the seasonal average.

This year the European Championship will be hosted for the first time by Poland and Ukraine. This means it should be a big one so you will need to stock up on goodies for the office, and what better place to store them than in a mini fridge that can be put right next to the TV (or computer) screen!
UEFA 2012 starts on the 8th of June and finishes on the 1st of July. This means there is plenty of time to enter.

The competition will be running from Wednesday the 18th of April till Sunday 20th of May. This then leaves time for the delivery of your prize and time to stock the fridge before the first game. The winner will be announced at 9am on Monday 21st of May.

The mini fridge holds 6 litres and is a modern dome shape in black. This will be sure to fit in with your office or even next to your sofa at home. What could be better than not having to get up for a drink or snack for the whole 90 minutes of the game! If this sounds like a prize for you, go to our twitter page.

Terms and Conditions

Entrants must be aged 18 or over and based within the UK. Competition closes at midnight on 20th May 2012 and the winner will be contacted on 21st May 2012.

The exclusive agent for Gree air-conditioners, Al-Asasyah Company, in Saudi Arabia has now been announced as the leading company in air conditioning globally.

Its current market share in Saudi Arabia is now said to be around 20 percent and is seen to have made huge progress over the last 7 years. This progress is due to the owners of the Gree air-conditioners factory, Gree Electric Appliances Inc. of Zhuhai in China.

The factory was founded in 1991; however production didn’t start till 1996. The company was also started without a name and had an annual production of less than 20,000 units a year.

According to industrial analysts and researchers, the factory is said to be unmatched in industrial experience. The production level has now reached one third of the global air conditioners production. This was estimated in 2010 at 90 million units.

Although it produces ones third of the worlds units it currently has the capacity to produce over half at around 45.5 million units a year.

The factory includes 300 research and development labs, 3800 workers, engineers and technicians and holds more than 3500 patents.

The factory produces 7000 different kinds of units which range from window air conditioners to chillers. They provide all types of air conditioning units for all types of related issues.

Other than air conditioning units they also supply, electric fans, water dispensers, heaters, rice cookers, air purifiers and much more.

After our week of sunshine, the weather looks set to change dramatically for us over the next few days. With snow already see in the more Northern parts of England and in Scotland it looks like our early summer hasn’t lasted.

Snow, sleet and rain hounded down on Britain last night and left 10,000 people without any power across the North East of England. There is yellow weather warning for Scotland, Wales, northern England and the Midlands. This is after gale force winds reached 80 mph last night.

According to forecasters, 15 – 20cm of snow fell last night in the Peak District, Pennies and Cumbria and with this kind of weather there are many travel disruptions around.

After writing about the high temperatures in Aboyne last week, this area has also seen 2cm of snow as the weather seems to be playing bizarre tricks on us.

This, however, is a good time to make sure all air conditioning units are functioning as well as they should be. From looking at the dramatic weather changes in the last week, who knows when we will see our next glimpse of summer, could be next week with these changes! By cleaning the units out and getting professionals to check them over as we have previously written about is essential. This is especially true with the weather as unpredictable as it is now. Scorching temperatures in the office without working air conditioning is unbearable.

This cold weather is set to move south leaving behind wintery conditions although there isn’t any forecast snow and we still have a little sunshine and highs of 13 throughout the week. This, at least for the south, is normal March temperatures.

We can see that the hottest temperatures recorded are all located in South, (lucky for us). Although this March we didn’t beat any temperature records (except in Scotland) the air con has definitely been on in our office all week.

We can also see that for ¼ of the year we need to have air conditioning, especially if you still want your staff to come to work even during the summer time!
If this month is anything to go by, we think that we are going to be seeing many more hotter days year on year, let us know what you think. Do you think you will be switching your air con on much earlier on in the year?

It isn’t safe to carry out the maintenance personally so a professional service person should be called. However, there are a few checks that can be done to make sure they are running efficiently. These include: clearing the evaporator, maintaining the condenser and handling the refrigerant.

Clearing the Evaporator

In some units the evaporator is not accessible and it will not be possible to clear it without professional help. However, if it is accessible then the first step is to locate the evaporator by removing any insulation wrapped around the plenum. Once this is done, an access plate will be uncovered which needs to be unscrewed. Inside will be the evaporator unit which, to clean the underside, needs to be cleaned with a stiff brush. Just be careful of any movements so not to damage the pipes. Next the tray underneath the unit needs to be cleaned. There is a hole in the tray which can get blocked in very humid weather so pour a tablespoon of household bleach into it.

Maintaining the Condenser

In most air-conditioning units the condenser is located on the outside of the building and tends to gather dirt and dust. They are easy to clean with a commercial coil cleaner which is on sale at most fridge retailers. The fins of the condenser need to be cleaned with a soft brush as they are prone to damage. Do not use water as this can turn any dirt into mud and it will get stuck between the fins. During the winter the condenser unit should be protected to stop blockage and ice damage.

Handling the Refrigerant

In most air conditioning units the refrigerant used is Freon and if this is too low or too high then there is a possibility that no cooling will happen. If there is a suspected Freon problem a specialist must be called to sort the refrigerant lines.

What can be done without professional help is checking the lines running from the condenser to the evaporator. If the insulation is worn this needs to be replaced with the same type as it will slow down the efficiency of the air-conditioning unit.

However, Dometic, a caravan appliance manufacturer launched the FreshLight2200 which could be an answer to the problem but now there is a smaller version for compact motorhomes and caravans called the Dometic FreshLight 1600.

The Dometic Freshlight 1600 is designed for smaller vehicles up to 6m in length and integrates an air conditioning unit with an overhead roof light, removing the dilemma of which feature to go for.

It features an integrated ventilation and automatic blower system, it cools the caravan with fresh air as well as providing a window, which can even be fitted with a pleated blind to match the rest of your interior design.

As we know, some air conditioning units, mainly the older versions can eat up energy. However, the Dometic FreshLight 1600 is energy efficient and uses just 620 watts to cool and 800 watts when switched to heating mode. Its cooling capacity reaches 1550 watts.

Have you ever considered cooling for your caravan?