As the authors noticed that environmental impacts are mainly due to energy consumption, and since CO2 is still an immature technology and present research data are giving conflicting results, the study focused on ways to improve the energy efficiency of R410A air conditioners in the use phase.
Replacing the working fluid R410A by CO2 in the growing market of room air-conditioners can reduce the greenhouse effect of direct refrigerant emissions, but can also be detrimental to the energy efficiency due to an increased energy consumption.
The main conclusion of the paper is that the implementation of a Minimum Energy Performance Standard could save up to 49 TWh and 20 MtCO2-eq in 2020 and be economically beneficial to the European end-user.