ASERCOM COMMENTS ON ISSUES REGARDING REFRIGERANTS COMPLYING WITH THE F-GAS REGULATION

ASERCOM (Association of European Refrigeration Component Manufacturers) has published a Statement regarding the choice of refrigerants in order to comply with the GWP upper limits of 2,500 by 2020 set by the 2014 F-Gas regulation.

Currently available non flammable substitutes for R-404A/R-507, the dominant refrigerants in commercial refrigerants, have GWPs in the range between 1,400 to 2,000, while lower GWP substitutes are mildly flammable (class A2L).

Flammability and safety are therefore important points to take into consideration when selecting new refrigerants. ASERCOM presently recommends using non flammable refrigerants for new installations, because of the importance of having previously thoroughly trained the very large number of contractors and installers involved.

Another issue is that most new refrigerants show technical differences from the ones commonly used, in terms of temperature glide (influencing system design), higher discharge temperatures and loss of refrigeration capacity. The choice for a replacement refrigerant will therefore have to take these factors into account.