Air Conditioning Applications Air Conditioning ApplicationsThe air conditioning industry is fully committed R-410A as the refrigerant of choice in scroll applications. Research has shown that R-410A is the best HFC for residential and commercial air conditioning systems. R-407C continues to be a good choice in some types of system and can be suitable for retrofitting R-22 systems.
R-410A refrigerant allows:
- higher system efficiency
- better Total Equivalent Warming Impact (TEWI)
- more compact and cost-effective equipment
- easy handling and recycling
R-410A has a significantly higher capacity than R-407C and R-134a, which makes it a cost-competitive choice for air conditioning and heat pump systems. It evaporates with a high heat transfer coefficient and low pressure drops thus making the system more efficient.
Efficiency that benefits the environment reducing the energy consumption and the CO2 indirect emissions (global warming). TEWI is the best measure of global warming, considering not only the direct global warming impact (refrigerant leakage, that for commercial system is very low), but also the sizable indirect Global Warming Potential resulting from carbon dioxide produced by energy consumption
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Both R-410A and R-407C can be used for heating applications and the choice will depend on the individual system and its design. It has been shown that R-410A with good design can result in best COP in both air source and ground source heat pumps although its theoretical COP may be slightly lower. This is due to physical properties.
Efficient heating solutions are endorsed by schemes such as the EHPA heat pump label and the ECO label.
Niche applications can use other refrigerants. R-134a can provide solutions when high temperatures are required, although it is a more costly solution for normal space heating and domestic hot water requirements. “Natural” refrigerants such as hydrocarbons are not generally applied due to obvious flammability concerns although the ECO label favours very low GWP refrigerants. R-744 (CO2) has been applied effectively where the heated fluid undergoes a very large temperature rise.
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