Mark W. Spatz

LOW GLOBAL WARMING REFRIGERANTS FOR RESIDENTIAL AIR CONDITIONING APPLICATIONS

Due to the growing global concerns around the use of refrigerants with relatively high global warming potential, new refrigerants with the positive attributes of both high thermal performance and low environmental impact are currently in development by Honeywell. These new refrigerants exhibit promising performance when compared with refrigerants currently used in stationary AC systems such as those that use R-410A, R-407C, and R-134a, for example. These new refrigerants also show significantly lower flammability characteristics than the much more flammable hydrocarbons. Replacements of common HFC refrigerants such as R-410A and R-407C are discussed for residential air conditioning applications. Thermal properties as well as experimental results in representative air conditioning systems are presented, showing the benefits of using these new refrigerants.