We started the 37th issue with Japan: air-conditioner shipments there have been growing for 13 consecutive months; in the first half of the fiscal year — 7.3 million units. Next — a cyberattack on supermarkets in France: hackers exploited a vulnerability in Danfoss controllers to raise the temperature in refrigeration equipment to 50 degrees. It later turned out that the attack also affected Copeland and Dixell controllers, so anyone using imported controllers should update the firmware.
Also in the digest: researchers in Aachen are looking for a refrigerant leak by receiver vibration and detect it already at 200 grams; in England they propose laying ground-source heat pumps beneath cemetery pathways; and Germany’s Chillventa 2026 drew 36 thousand visitors. “Climate World” will take place at “Crocus Expo” on November 10–13. We explained why we are betting on Gree as Daikin’s successor in our range: a Gree air conditioner immediately took 3rd place in our ranking. In the “Cheapest split system of the week” section, iFalcon and “Biryusa” lead, with prices around 10 thousand rubles.
Guest of the episode — Andrey Rudov, head of the company “Airikond”. Nearly 10 years in the industry, he deals only with supplying ventilation for large facilities. They used to work with IMP Klima, Lindab, and Janka Engineering; now mostly with “NPT Klimatika” (Wheil brand). According to him, there is no sharp downturn in the market: ventilation plants are running at 120% capacity, and lead times for complex equipment are already slipping into January. The warranty for the Wheil Sirius series is 5 years from the date of delivery.
Andrey’s main complaint about installers is just one thing: when something does not work, they tell the client that the fault is bad equipment. Therefore, for units with a built-in refrigeration circuit, “Airikond” tries to include factory commissioning in the contract — otherwise every December, with the first frosts, frozen heat exchangers show up. Andrey uses artificial intelligence to review contracts: the AI found two supplier-dangerous clauses that he himself missed.
The second half of the conversation is about music: the band “HardBards” and the “MuzInzh” club, where engineers, designers, and suppliers play and sing together. The club’s motto is “We grow richer in people”.