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The facts on R410A refrigerant
Many manufacturers have already realized that R410A refrigerant has some excellent benefits to offer and is being labeled as the only efficient refrigerant that’s available.
R410A can provide some small advantages in efficiency. It is technology itself that is the largest contributor towards the steady increase in ever important COP’s. A good comparison can be made with cars and fuel for example: The fact that a car can provide more miles per gallon today than say, five years ago, is due to technological advances in the car rather than the fuel.
The same is true of direct expansion systems, with the need to focus on efficiency as a whole, not simply the type of refrigerant. How the refrigerant is used is of paramount importance and good system installation is crucial. The skills required today, are no different to those that have always been required and although the equipment and subsequent numbers may differ, the need for good practice remains the same.
R410A refrigerant has some excellent benefits to offer.
A brief history of refrigerant
Since 1985 it’s been well documented that the ozone layer surrounding the earth has been diminishing. Scientific evidence suggests man-made chemicals are responsible for creating the hole in the ozone layer and that they’re likely to add to global ozone depletion.
Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) have been used in many products which take advantages of their physical properties. For example, Chloro Fluoro Carbons (CFC’s), have commonly been used as aerosol propellants and refrigerants.
However, since highlighting that the chlorine in CFC’s attributes to the demise of the ozone layer, the ‘Montreal protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer’ was negotiated and signed by 24 countries and the European Union in 1987. The protocol calls for all parties to scale down the use of CFC’s, halons and other man-made ODS.
R22 is a Hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC)
As a result of legislation R22 refrigerant (an HCFC), has been virtually phased out in all new equipment. The air conditioning industry now uses (HFC) as it has no chlorine content and zero Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP).
R410A is a Hydrofluorocarbon (HFC)
Systems using R410A refrigerant run at a pressure of approximately 1.6 times that of similar systems using R22 and the energy efficiency is comparable. The R410A refrigerant is a 50:50 mixture of R32 and R125. It has a higher direct Global Warming Potential (GWP) than R22 or R407c, but a much lower indirect GWP (CO2 production at power station).
R407c is a Hydrofluorocarbon (HFC)
R407c is a mix of three refrigerants: R32, R125 and R134a - all of which boil at a different temperature. R407c has a range or glide of approximately 5°C compared with R410A which has less than 0.17K. In R407c, R32 provides the capacity, R125 controls the flammability and R134a reduces the pressure.
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