In the first quarter of 2024, although the central air-conditioning market is facing an environmental status quo of high retail inventory, lower than expected project quantity, and intensified competition in emerging industrial projects, domestic and foreign shipments are still showing a growth trend, and the brand side has also maintained strong market vitality.
Since the beginning of the year, the central air conditioning brand has shined in the HVAC exhibition activities in the fields of AWE, heat pump exhibition, refrigeration exhibition, Canton Fair, as well as local and vertical markets.
At the China Refrigeration Exhibition that just ended in April, domestic and foreign brands such as Midea Building Technology, Haier Smart Building, Hisense Central Air Conditioning, and McQuay seized the current opportunity of energy-saving transformation and equipment renewal demand, and displayed many building energy-saving renewal solutions from household models to industrial and commercial products to system operation and maintenance services, seizing a new track for industry development.
Swipe left and right to see more
For example, the updated solution released by Midea Building Technology mentioned that for the renovation of existing buildings, it is necessary to feature the comprehensive transformation of facilities, and build a one-stop comprehensive transformation plan system through demand optimization, efficiency improvement, energy waste reduction, and management improvement, which not only improves the overall energy efficiency and operating costs of the building, greatly reduces carbon emissions, but also intelligently monitors and manages daily operation equipment such as HVAC, elevators, and lighting, so as to realize the refined intelligent management of people-oriented and comfortable experience as the value point.
In terms of smart buildings, during the refrigeration exhibition, in addition to displaying product replacement solutions such as multi-online and water machines, it also pioneered the full-space "5 no, 4 provinces and 3 freedom" IoT multi-online renewal solutions. It has achieved no pipe replacement, no line replacement, no internal machine, no decoration, and no impact on business, realized non-stop renewal, supported the renewal of the whole brand, covered the commercial building and public utilities renewal market in the next few years, and won the refrigeration and air conditioning replacement technology innovation award issued by the China Household Electrical Appliances Industry Association.
In fact, since the release of the "Action Plan for Promoting Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-in" in March this year, industry, agriculture, construction, transportation, education, cultural tourism, medical care and other fields have begun to replace the program reserves, and the detailed supporting policies have been implemented in Shandong, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Hunan, Fujian and other provinces, effectively driving the demand release of the central air-conditioning stock market and stimulating the formation of new market growth points.
However, it should also be noted that at present, the national equipment renewal project is still dominated by user-initiated equipment transformation, and enterprises are guided to accelerate the implementation of equipment renewal through market and policy means. Therefore, in the process of mainstream enterprises such as Midea and Haier investing a lot of resources into the field of energy-saving transformation, it is also necessary for government departments to provide coordinated support through financial and monetary tools to help enterprises effectively solve the problems of complex installation services, high requirements for product technology upgrades, and complex and diverse user needs in equipment replacement, so as to help the industry accelerate the process of HVAC innovation and upgrading, and promote the formation of a virtuous circle oriented by product technology.
From the perspective of the HVAC development cycle, heat pump technology, energy storage technology, smart buildings, renewable energy and other tracks with central air conditioning as the core components are in a critical opportunity period for the development of the industry, becoming the hard core kinetic energy for the green and low-carbon upgrading of the construction industry. Nowadays, many central air-conditioning companies have successfully entered a number of new tracks such as heat pumps and smart buildings, and have continuously iteratively upgraded, optimized the strategic layout of products, and obtained a large number of model cases.
Swipe left and right to see more
At the 2024 Heat Pump Exhibition, Midea Building Technology showcased a variety of efficient, flexible and innovative clean heating solutions in five product exhibition areas: real estate supporting heating solutions, industrial park comprehensive heating solutions, commercial building low-carbon heating solutions, commercial hot water solutions, and photovoltaic heat storage and flexible integrated energy solutions. Relying on the iBUILDING energy management platform, based on the capabilities of digital twins and cloud computing, it accurately monitors and efficiently manages project operations to promote the intelligent upgrade of clean heating. Among them, the high-temperature heat pump centrifugal unit integrates the latest research and development achievements of the United States, such as aerospace aerodynamic design and two-stage compression and gas enthalpy enhancement technology, with a single heating heat of 10MW, a water temperature range of 65°C-85°C, a temperature rise of up to 10°C on the hot water side, and a temperature rise of 78°C on the condensation side and evaporation side.
At the same time, a total of 81 products from the Heat Pump Exhibition won the "2024 HPE China Heat Pump Exhibition Innovative Product Award", covering -35°C ultra-low temperature heat pump heating and cooling machine, trigeneration, 90°C/120°C/135°C high temperature heat pump unit, heat pump drying unit, energy storage liquid cooling integrated machine, jet enthalpy increase scroll DC inverter compressor/photovoltaic/solar thermal unit and many other new products. The overall number of awards increased by 72% year-on-year, reaching the highest level in the industry, which shows that the attention of heat pump products in central air-conditioning enterprises has been significantly improved, and has become an important weight for enterprises to compete for hard core strength.
In addition, the smart building industry and building energy conservation are also showing a rapid development trend, and related enterprises are expected to usher in a new blue ocean market of hundreds of millions of yuan. From the perspective of exhibitors at the 2024 China Refrigeration Exhibition, in addition to leading companies such as Midea Building Technology and Haier Smart Buildings continuing to upgrade their smart building platforms and optimize operation and maintenance services, Hisense central air conditioning at the "debut" China Refrigeration Exhibition also brought smart building solutions.
Among them, Hisense's new launchECO-B smart building management system,Focus on the needs of all kinds of people in the whole life cycle of the building,Air management、Energy management、A set of operation and maintenance management is integrated,Make building operation and maintenance more efficient and energy-saving、Make space design more humane,Effectively create a green life community in future space,The scene field covers commercial enterprises、Industrial and mining plants、Government public construction、Education and training、Medical and health care5Major fields and extend to19Industry scenarios。
As a domestic head brand known for its core technology, Gree also demonstrated its self-developed GMOS building intelligent control operating system around zero carbon and intelligence. The product has been applied to HVAC intelligent control projects such as multi-line, water heater, and high-efficiency computer room, and has been extended to smart office, smart factory, smart park and other building intelligent control fields, building an exclusive GMOS building intelligent control system for different users.
With the advancement of old community renovation and urban renewal policies, a large number of old and second-hand houses have become a new incremental market in the home furnishing industry. Among them, home intelligence and scenario-based home have become a new starting point for upgrading the quality of home consumption.
Swipe left and right to see more
At the AWE2024 exhibition, the integration of smart homes such as Gree Comfort Home, Hisense Central Air Conditioning Professional Passive House Solution, Hitachi Whole House Full Sense 2.0 Smart Air Customization System, Panasonic 6 Constant Climate Station 2.0, and Oaks Central Air Conditioning Intelligent Voice Products have become one of the highlights of this exhibition.
Compared with the previous individual product displays, the home central air conditioning system with integrated home design and scene-based has been comprehensively improved in terms of comfort, aesthetics and health, and the system integrates household commercial scenarios, bringing users a new experience and feelings.
Under the influence of the upgrading of household consumption quality, household central air conditioning is no longer just a simple temperature regulation device, but an intelligent product based on user experience and user needs. With the continuous development of artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and big data technology, the application of intelligent sensors and data analysis technology has enabled the home central air conditioning system to achieve precise temperature control and energy management, and consumers can also achieve remote control through mobile APP or voice assistant to achieve personalized and comfortable experience. At the same time, some household central air conditioning systems can also learn according to the user's habits and behaviors, and automatically adjust the temperature and wind speed.
In addition, in order to make the user experience more comfortable, many household central air conditioning systems also have the functions of dehumidification, dust removal, sterilization, etc., while focusing on the appearance of the product and humanized design, the operation and maintenance are more convenient and fast, which not only effectively prevents bacterial breeding, reduces indoor air pollution, but also improves the quality of life of consumers.
All in all, in the face of an uncertain economic environment and competitive landscape, the difficulties and opportunities faced by various brands of central air conditioning are also different. However, judging from the main exhibitions and enterprise layouts of the industry this year, the long-term positive trend remains unchanged. This means that enterprises should not only take advantage of the trend, but also learn to survive and grow in adversity, and strive to seize the commanding heights of the track in the new opportunities for the development of central air conditioning.