The Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) has released the findings of a risk assessment into the use of flammable refrigerants in heat pumps.
The assessment found there is a very low risk of ignition from the use of R-32, HFO-1234yf, or HFO-1234ze in ducted residential split heat pump systems.
Entitled "Risk Assessment of Residential Heat Pump Systems Using 2L Flammable Refrigerants",the report is available for download from the AHRI web site.
AHRI president Stephen Yurek said the study investigated four locations within a residence for installing an indoor air handler, including the basement, garage, attic, and utility closet.
Yurek said computational fluid dynamics simulation and validation tests were conducted to understand refrigerant dispersion patterns.
He said the study evaluated seven refrigerant leak scenarios.
The fault tree analysis in this study only considered refrigerant ignition and did not determine whether a fire would ensue due to the ignition of surrounding materials.
It can be downloaded at www.ahrinet.org/technical+results.aspx
