ACR Journal

CMYK / .ai CMYK / .ai CMYK / .ai acrjournal.uk 11 AIR CONDITIONING Selecting the right refrigerant Climalife wanted to use a refrigerant with the lowest GWP possible. This was a crucial step to be sure the equipment and its refrigerant could have a long lifespan and that it would be environmentally sustainable. With its extensive refrigerant knowledge, Climalife UK knew that an A2L refrigerant would have the relevant properties to help deliver the overall objectives for the installation, and set to seek out the right solution for the project. Climalife contacted a number of contractors, asking them to recommend, quote and install the new system and its refrigerant. After receiving a number of dierent quotes, a pattern seemed to be emerging in that none were suggesting the use of an A2L refrigerant. This was a surprise for the team, who assumed that contractors would oer A2L systems, but they were oering R-410A, an A1 refrigerant with a GWP of 2088. Whilst R-410A falls within the allowable range of refrigerants that can be used right now (ie it has a GWP <2500), it would potentially in the future be caught up in availability issues and future bans. With many equipment manufacturers focusing to phase out the use of R-410A with new lower GWP alternatives already proven to be compatible with system types such as the ones required, it was not an option that Climalife wanted to consider. Allan Harper said: “Originally we wanted to use equipment that ran on an extremely low GWP refrigerant (<400 GWP). We knew the refrigerants were available from producers Honeywell and Chemours; and that it would be suitable for use, however finding the compatible equipment proved to be much harder than we thought. We then came to the conclusion to use R-32 as we thought we could source suitable equipment easily and were happy that the refrigerant still held a relatively low GWP value of 675.” Selecting the right equipment The equipment required had to be compatible with the chosen refrigerant, R-32. Climalife was looking for a number of split systems for individual oces but also needed a number of larger 16-18kW multi split systems for the larger open plan areas. At the time, this type of equipment was not available from most of the large manufacturers based in Japan, who only had small split systems available. But because of the larger open plan areas the team required larger units with a bigger cooling capacity. The building renovation had started but the final design and equipment choice for the air conditioning had not been decided upon. Allan Harper stated that he would not compromise with a higher GWP refrigerant – it was essential that the right equipment was found. At this stage, Climalife turned to one of its distributor customers to see if they had any new ideas on equipment and a contractor that we could use for the project. The distributor, Richard Stewart from Air Conditioning Accessories, introduced Darren Cromack from Glide Air Conditioning and together the three companies looked at the requirements and options available. Darren Cromack said “After an initial conversation with Allan around the design and installation of a full R-32 AC system for their newly acquired oce, it was clear there was no other alternative to use R-32 due to the much lower levels of GWP in comparison to R-410A. Following our design meetings, we approached a number of manufacturers only to be faced with the dilemma that at the time of design, they only manufactured R-32 systems up to 10Kw. In any other typical design, the building would have warranted a VRF/ VRV Installation. The team were willing to compromise on independent heating and cooling in each space in the interest of lowering the GWP with R-32.” Richard Stewart of Air Conditioning Accessories held conversations with equipment manufacturer Midea to find out what new-to-market equipment they could oer. Midea quickly advised that they could supply a 16 to 18kW multi split option, which would enable an install of 19 indoor units o only eight condensers, all containing R-32 refrigerant.