Australian Refrigeration Association president, Tim Edwards, explains why the move to low GWP refrigerants must be supported by training and a nationally consistent regulatory environment.
HVACR will add 56-90 per cent to global warming by 2050 if we don't dramatically reduce the use of HFC refrigerants. We're at a cliff edge with carbon and HFCs will take us over that edge.
Internationally, we have agreement to move ahead with a HFC phase-down but it should really be a HFC phase-out. In Australia, we could achieve cost savings of around $10 billion per annum by implementing energy efficiency measures.
According to the Cold Hard Facts Report, there are 53 million individual HVACR installations in Australia worth $100 billion. Industry has 70,000 tradesmen and 20,000 firms. The only way to future proof your HVACR system is by using natural refrigerants.
It is an incontrovertible fact of molecular thermal dynamics that natural refrigerants are more energy efficient with superior heat transfer properties. That's a physical fact. Sure you can screw up through poor engineering but use naturals properly and you will deliver greater efficiency. The range is extreme we're talking 5-40 per cent more efficient than synthetics subject to design.
Then you can deliver even greater efficiencies by better managing heatload and control systems. We could also avoid about a billion dollars in imports by avoiding synthetics.
HVACR systems are mechanically intense – they shake, they break, they leak. All systems leak refrigerants. While this problem can be managed, it is impossible to avoid.
The entire leakage situation could be so much better if there was more enforcement. It is illegal to knowingly emit but there has only been one prosecution since 1995. With no enforcement the message to industry is basically don't bother. Its of more interest to technicians or service companies to put more refrigerant in when recharging because it means more money when billing the client.
Safety in this industry is misrepresented in the extreme. All refrigerants must be handled with care by trained professionals. Safety is not a distinguishing factor by refrigerant, they are all dangerous and its competent people that make them safe.
We are debating safety right now because of a new standard that has been released for public comment AS-ISO 5149 and 817. The frequency of safety incidents in this industry is very low. There is no official data as it isn't collected but basically it almost never happens.
One area where we do need data is to find out that impact on technicians when they inhale synthetic refrigerants. When it comes to this question, my intuition says it isn't very good, but that's another story.
To make matters worse we have a global standard in place that is false. Just to explain A2L - A means non-toxic and 2L is low flammability. All refrigerants except Co2 are flammable. R32 is dangerous. The MSDS says R32 is extremely flammable yet the standards claim R32 is classified as low flammability so which one is right?
The standards development process isn't just vulnerable it is fundamentally flawed. Safety in HVACR is about one thing that's trained engineers and technicians. Raising awareness around safety and training is a huge task and it should including everybody in the industry including specifiers and facilitators. This represents over 100,000 people in Australia making it a huge educational requirement.
Unfortunately, right now training is in disarray because government policy undermines TAFE. If you look at TAFE schools across Australia they have wonderful facilities and great teachers. There has got to be a better way to fix them than simply competing with private RTOs.
So how did we get into this crazy situation where naturals are better in every way yet right now synthetics dominate the industry?
Prior to 1940 naturals were the preferred choice but our engineering wasn't up to the task from a safety perspective so we invented CFCs followed by HCFCs, then we had the Montreal Protocol, HFCs and now HFOs. The Alphabetic soup of the industry is hard to follow.
Average atmospheric life of HFCs is 21yrs. R32 has a 20 year GWP of 2330. From a cost point of view its inevitable that we are going to have carbon pricing in the future because it makes so much sense.
When we have carbon pricing at 20 year GWPs the cost of synthetic refrigerants will go through the roof. The proposed HFC amendment to the Protocol will call for dramatic reductions in the use of HFCs and a final agreement should be in place by 2017.