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Chris Fontana, M.AIRAHChris Fontana, M.AIRAH, has been a fixture of AIRAH’s Tasmanian division, serving as its president from 2015–2017.
A refrigeration mechanic by trade, Fontana started his apprenticeship around 20 years ago. In 2008, he made the transition off the tools into a service manager role. The shift has led to a greater all-round involvement in all aspects of the HVAC&R industry – from refrigeration design and project management to larger scale air conditioning and mechanical projects. Fontana is now self-employed and offers project management and design services on a wide range of HVAC&R systems. |
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What brought you to the HVAC&R industry? I sat an aptitude test with a group training company, and they suggested I try refrigeration as I had good mechanical aptitude. At the time I didn’t know what a fridgie even was – but I’m glad I went down that path. It has opened a lot of doors for me. What's something everyone should know about you, your work, or the HVAC&R industry? I hear quite often about how the HVAC&R industry needs more exposure, but the whole point of the industry is that it is an invisible industry. The people within our industry and the machines they design work tirelessly in the background, providing some of the most important services our civilisation has needed and will continue to need to survive. The ability to refrigerate food has allowed our populations to grow. Our contribution to the medical, manufacturing, commercial and IT sectors are some other examples. HVAC&R has majorly contributed to our society becoming what is today. We design and install some of the most complex and intricate machines that go into a building, yet these are concealed in a ceiling space or behind a plant screen, out of the eye of the public – which is the whole point. When we do our job well, nobody should hear or feel anything and our equipment should just work away in the background, doing what it needs to do. |
How long have you been a member of AIRAH? About 10 years. What's your favourite HVAC&R-related memory? I’ve had a lot of great memories from my time in the industry, but a memory that stands out was when I went to my first national AIRAH conference in 2014 as I was the state president at the time. I thought I had a reasonable idea of the scope and size of our industry but met some people there working in areas such as research and development and large-scale commercial projects. It really broadened my scope of what we do and made me want to explore areas of our industry I wasn’t aware of. How do you see the HVAC&R industry developing over the next 100 years? One hundred years is a long time! I think even over the next 20 years we will see a big move away from the vapour compression system. It has served us well until now, but we now know the environmental impact of HFCs and the dangers of alternatives to HFCs. There are a lot of emerging technologies and also a resurgence of some old technologies, such as absorption refrigeration utilising a solar heat source. Vapour compression is efficient when compared with electric heating, but I think we can do much better and find something far more efficient. There are currently a lot of brilliant minds out there working on the next big thing that will take HVAC&R into the next generation. |