ACR Journal

33 The RAC Engineer’s Guide to Low GWP Refrigerants Jargon Buster Wolseley and A-Gas often answer questions from engineers about the terminology relating to our industry. Our experts have put together a brief guide for you to refer to on the go. F-Gas F stands for fluorinated. F-Gas is the term used to describe a particular family of fluorinated gases widely used as refrigerants. GWP The GWP or Global Warming Potential of a refrigerant is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere. It allows for the comparison of the global warming impact of different gases. CO 2 , by definition, has a GWP of one regardless of the time period used and is the gas used as the reference. See Page 35 for a GWP summary list . CO 2 equivalent This is a measure for describing how much global warming potential a greenhouse gas may cause using the functionally equivalent amount or concentration of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) as the reference. Quota A quota system has been introduced to control refrigerant sales in the EU and UK market. This will affect all HFC producers, importers and exporters and is based on control of bulk HFC production, import and export. There are additional controls for the import of pre-charged products. Phase down The F-Gas Regulation was implemented on Jan 1 2015. The regulation puts in place an HFC phase down from 2015 to 2030 by means of a quota system and bans on high GWP refrigerants in Europe.