Free cooling or heat recovery with HFC & HFO systems deliver improved energy efficiency

Combining free cooling or heat recovery with HFC and HFO systems reduces energy consumption. While ultra-low GWP HFOs and HCFOs are increasingly being adopted due their good balance of safety and technical properties, HFCs continue to have an important role.

New air-cooled chillers, using ultra-low GWP HFO-1234ze as one of the options available, are specifically optimised for data centres with the ability to deliver a higher percentage of free cooling over the course of a year. The chillers are also designed to operate at increased supply/return water temperatures (20/ 32 ºC), in line with data centre trends and to maximise free cooling potential and can deliver up to 39% annual energy cost savings over traditional free cooling methods. See Cooling Post.

HFC-32 rooftop system with energy recovery. The energy contained in exhaust air is recovered on part of the external exchanger. The system has full inverter technology on compressors and fans, and dual refrigerant circuits. Seasonal efficiencies with SEER and SCOP are said to be 30% higher than the requirements of the ErP standard. See Cooling Post.

HFC-410A packaged roof top units with free-cooling mode. A supermarket chain is installing the packaged roof-top units as part of a rolling equipment replacement programme. The intelligent control system constantly adapts cooling output to changes in ambient temperature and load to optimise performance and minimise energy use, and the free-cooling mode makes use of outdoor air conditions when they are favourable. Seasonal efficiencies deliver up to 37% energy savings compared with EU Tier 1 efficiency requirements with SEER exceeding 3.53 and SCOP over 3.20. See Cooling Post.

Explanatory note: Seasonal efficiency rating system for heating and cooling products must be used by all manufacturers. These are SEER- the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio value in cooling and SCOP -the Seasonal Coefficient of Performance value in heating.

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