ACR Journal

CMYK / .ai CMYK / .ai CMYK / .ai acrjournal.uk 23 REFRIGERANT New engineers for Rapid Recovery A-Gas Rapid Recovery has appointed two new F-Gas qualified sales and service engineers. Andy Mole, based in Hexham, will cover the north of England and Scotland with Liam Bruce, from Leicester, covering the Midlands. A-Gas Rapid Recovery is a bespoke, F-Gas compliant service with recovery rates many times faster than traditional recovery units. A-Gas says the main benefit to contractors is that they are able to outsource this work to someone who is a specialist in the field of recovery. A network of recovery vehicles and engineers is available to go on site at short notice to handle jobs of all sizes. The equipment is independent of services like power, is portable and with long hoses it can reach RAC units in the most di…cult places. As well as refrigeration, A-Gas Rapid Recovery provides services to a wide range of industries, including heating and ventilation, demolition and marine. www.agasrapidrecovery.com that matches that of virgin refrigerant requirements. By using reclaimed refrigerant there is the benefit that you do not need to import new virgin material to meet supply. A further advantage is gained as you will be saving on the raw material usage, energy consumption and unnecessary transport normally associated with virgin production. Choosing between reclaiming or recycling refrigerant can present the engineer with an onsite dilemma. The option of recycling a gas can seem attractive in the first instance. A basic, quick and cheap clean-up of the old refrigerant and a return to the same system can seem an easy fix but are you making the right decision? With recycling there is no guarantee that all the impurities have been removed and that the refrigerant conforms to AHRI 700 standards. The vast majority of refrigerants in use are blends. Refrigerants are becoming increasingly complex and normally comprise of multiple components. Most mid to low GWP mixtures contain a blend of HFCs and HFOs – and some even contain CO2. They all have di’erent boiling points and behave di’erently within the blend. Storing up problems The di’erence in the maximum and minimum boiling point of the various mixtures that make up the blend is described as the glide of the refrigerant. If there is a leak in the vapour phase of a system, the components with the lower boiling points will escape preferentially to those with higher boiling points. Depending on where the leak occurs what’s left in the system may not be the same blend as you started with. For example, the R407 family of products has a glide of up to six degrees and returning this mixture to the system with a basic clean-up may be storing up problems for the future. If you return this mixture as a recycled refrigerant, together with contaminants like oil and moisture to the system, the implications can be wide ranging and can lead to poorer performance, higher energy use and increased running costs i. If you have had a leak ignore the recycle option and choose a recharge of virgin – where permitted – or reclaimed gas instead. You then know that what you are putting in the system is exactly what it says on the cylinder. During the lockdown A-Gas reclamation facilities remained operational, as have our other critical onsite services to customers. This has helped meet the needs of essential suppliers to the emergency services, health care, supermarkets, food processing and transport industries during the pandemic. Our robust supply chain has ensured availability has not been a’ected. With restricted working practices in place what has had an influence is the slowdown in construction together with supermarkets and food processors only able to give the go-ahead for essential maintenance. The di…culties associated with having too many people onsite hampered e’orts to ensure the same level of pro-active servicing and left refrigeration contractors having to furlough sta’ to deal with the downturn. In this respect there’s no doubt that Covid-19 has had a huge impact on the refrigeration industry. Hospitality and retail are struggling as the slow return to normality happens. This is having an e’ect on our industry as work in pubs, restaurants and High Street shops produces a large amount of business for manufacturers and installers. On the bright side, supermarkets and convenience stores have continued with business as usual as the food supply chain remains unbroken. Taking the longer view, with more people still working from home we may also see a growth in the domestic air conditioning market as they miss the comfort cooling they take for granted in the o…ce. What cannot be denied is that refrigeration has been recognised as a key player during the pandemic. The positives and negatives of the lockdown are emerging and we are still uncertain where they will take us. There are, though, some developments you can rely on. Whatever happens to the economy, reclaimed refrigerant is here to stay and will play a leading role in the step downs as the F-Gas Regulation marches on. www.agas.com Andy Mole Liam Bruce