Page 16 - Climate Control News Magazine April 2021

Choosing the
right refrigerant
A-GAS AUSTRALIA MANAGING DIRECTOR BRETT FERGUSON EXPLAINS WHY END USERS SHOULD NOT RELY ON LOW GWP ALONE WHEN DECIDING ON A REFRIGERANT TO FUTURE-PROOF A SYSTEM.
ning may be swamped by hefty running costs further down the road.
Take, for example, CO2, a zero ozone depleting refrigerant which on the face of it seems a winner from the start. This natural may appear to be great value as you get the ultimate score GWP- wise but you may find out that the amount of en- ergy needed to run the system and the costs as- sociated with this could be in a different league. CO2 likes low ambient conditions, so unless you are designing an installation for a Scandinavian climate, it is not always an obvious choice.
R404A is one of the most widely used refriger- ants in supermarkets but it has a GWP of just un- der 4000. The continued use and availability of R404A helps to relieve the pressure of retrofitting to an alternative but when you are ready to opt for a low GWP refrigerant there are a number of important considerations to take into account.
The system must have similar operating char- acteristics to R404A in terms of being a medium or low temperature replacement. To achieve this match the refrigeration capacity as closely as pos- sible with the lowest GWP refrigerant available.
ABOVE: A-Gas Australia managing director Brett Ferguson
CHOOSING THE RIGHT refrig- erant to help reduce global warming should, on the face of it, be a straightforward decision. Just replace a high GWP refrig- erant with a low GWP alternative. In turn, CO2 emissions will be reduced and the box has been ticked for everyone to be on their way to a low carbon future. You can then move on to the next job leaving the customer knowing you have made the right choice.
If only it was that simple. No one disputes that a measure of global warming potential is impor- tant in selecting the most suitable refrigerant for a system but there is much more to it than that.
Energy efficiency is a critical factor when se- lecting a new refrigerant. You can view CO2 emissions as two distinct areas – direct and indi-
rect. The former relates to global warming po- tential (GWP) and the latter refers to system per- formance and energy efficiency.
Experts agree that indirect emissions from electrical consumption are a greater contributor to climate change than refrigerant leaks. That is why it is always important to weigh-up system performance and energy efficiency before mak- ing a decision on a refrigerant.
Here is another easy trap to fall into. Lifecycle costs, also known as operational expenditure (OPEX), may not be at the forefront of your mind when designing a system. Capital expenditure costs (CAPEX), covering the cost of buying the equipment and start-up, can dominate. It is im- portant to take into consideration the entire life- cycle of the equipment as well as the start-up side, otherwise any savings made at the begin-
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