How Important Is Refrigerant Leak Detection?

By: Daniel Stouffer

Refrigerant leak detection in HVAC and RAC systems is a challenging task even for the most experienced service technicians as any leak can be very well hidden in a system component, tubing, or in a safety control switch.

With the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation documented in The U.S. Clean Air Act (Sections 608 & 609), refrigerant leak detection takes on great urgency. The intent of the regulation is to lower emissions of gases harmful to the environment. As such, the new government rules no longer give service technicians the option of adding refrigerant when the system is low due to a leak. Rather, the leak has to be found and fixed within a specified period of time.

There are numerous types of testing equipment that can be used in refrigerant leak detection, some of it automated and others acting as sniffers for on site testing. To find the leak, service technicians have to determine the best method to use. Methods include a soap solution, a halide torch, dye interception, isolation of a component from the system, or pressurizing the system with dry nitrogen gas.

All of these methods take time and money, which can turn into a very expensive service call. A less costly alternative for companies is utilizing refrigerant management software that pinpoints the origin of a leak by either tracking service events over time to establish trends or to implement an automated leak detection technology.

An electronic leak detector is one of the fastest methods used in refrigerant leak detection. Leaks of HCFCs and CFCs can be found using refrigerant leak detectors. Quick identification of a leak is important because the release of these gases is heavily regulated by the EPA, with companies subject to fines if their emissions are not fixed within a certain time frame.

Refrigerant gas management software is a valuable tool in refrigerant leak detection. Such systems will be able to provide companies important details on the performance of its heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) and refrigeration and air conditioning (RAC) systems, monitor and detect refrigerant gas leaks, provide reports on refrigerant use, and accurately keep records on maintenance and repair.

Regulations on refrigerant leak detection describes and governs the proper repair of a leak and appropriate disposal of any refrigerant system which can't be repaired. These extensive requirements are in force in the United States, as well as several foreign countries. The treaties set forth a worldwide response to improving and protecting the planet.

Quick action of refrigerant leak detection is a great importance to the environment. Refrigerant gases are identified to cause damage to the ozone layer which have high global warming potential. To comply with environmental standards, many companies are investing in a refrigerant management program to monitor and track equipment usage.

Because of environmental and cost concerns related to refrigerant leak detection, many facilities with systems that use refrigerants are relying on refrigerant tracker applications. A refrigerant tracker monitors refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) systems and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems around the clock and instantly detects the location of any leaks. Various studies confirm that industrial and commercial facilities will be able to save money every year by using leak detection monitoring systems.

About the Author

Sustainability Resource Planning (SRP) software from Verisae helps to manage carbon emissions tracking and reporting requirements across global organizations. The SRP platform makes it easier to report carbon emissions and track refrigerant gases. Learn more at http://www.verisae.com/articles

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Natural Refrigerants & Carbon Dioxide

Substances such as air, water, ammonia, hydrocarbons, and carbon dioxide may provide solutions to the problem of finding environmentally acceptable refrigerants.

By Yunho Hwang, Michael Ohadi, and Reinhard Radermacher
Refrigeration and air conditioning play important roles in modern life. They not only provide comfortable and healthy living environments, but have also come to be regarded as necessities for surviving severe weather and preserving food. Unfortunately, accelerated technical development and economic growth in much of the world during the last century have produced severe environmental problems, forcing us to acknowledge that though these technological advances may contribute to human comfort, they also can threaten the environment through ozone depletion and global warming. Aside from cost reduction, these concerns are the biggest driving forces for technical innovation in the field of refrigeration and air conditioning.

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs)—used as working refrigerants in refrigerators and air conditioners as well as blowing agents in foams—are now being regulated because of their contribution to ozone depletion. Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) could be useful as short- and midterm replacements, but may ultimately not be suitable, owing to their high global-warming potential (GWP). Accordingly, a long-term solution will require the use of natural refrigerants. The refrigerator and automotive air-conditioning industries have already begun to address the challenges of replacing HCFCs, including R-22, and, eventually, HFCs on a global level.

The second, more important reason, dealt with thermodynamics. Gerrard says that to reach the operating temperature that they require (–18 DegF) using a CO2 system would have meant using two compressors in order to reach the same energy efficiency as the hydrocarbons.

When choosing propane, they were initially concerned about safety issues. “The first question we had was the flammability of the refrigerant,” he says. “But, we knew that isobutane and propane have approximately the same flammability rating and that in the year 2000, there were about 120 million domestic refrigerators and freezers using isobutane and we weren’t aware of any accidents.”

Unilever undertook a number of risk assessments before the introduction of the hydrocarbon cabinets. The company also did leak testing and found that the leak rates for hydrocarbons in operation were “very, very low,” he says, in line with HFC refrigerated cabinets.. Leak rates are in the range of grams per year, he says, and at this rate it was highly unlikely that flammable mixtures could be formed.

In the US new rules come into effect on Jan. 1, 2010, restricting the use of hydrochlorofluorocarbons in refrigerants for air-conditioning systems, geothermal heat pumps and the chillers used to cool large residential and office buildings.





Does more sun shine on the righteous?

Does more sun shine on the righteous?

Cold Thoughts

by Neil Everitt

The editor of ACR News posts his own cold thoughts about the ACR industry and anything else he cares to air.

25/11/2009 12:14:10
IN THE editorial in the September issue of ACR News, I commented upon how those who feel they have a righteous cause can sometimes pursue that cause so zealously that their actions can become morally skewed.

My references at the time were to those who pursue natural ventilation to the exclusion of air conditioning but it could now equally be applied to the climate scientists at the centre of revelations exposed by the "hacked" emails at Britain's Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia.

As one of the primary information sources for the UN's influential international panel on Climate Change (IPCC), some have claimed that the content of the leaked emails prove that the whole man-made global warming theory is a lie.

Certainly the scientists involved could be accused of manipulating evidence to fit their perceived theories; suppressing and even destroying evidence to the contrary and attempting to exclude dissenting scientists from the peer review process.

This is damning evidence but it is not surprising that a group of people who are so convinced that they are right should act in this way. It does suggest that they are so convinced that they are on the right route that they have ditched their moral compass, but it does not mean that their beliefs that man is responsible for global warming are wrong.

One thing the emails do show, however, is that despite claims to the contrary, the evidence of anthropogenic global warming is not as clear cut as they would have us believe. In particular the environmental scientists appear unable to explain how, despite CO2 levels in the atmosphere rising over the last 11 years, global temperatures have not increased with it as they would have predicted.

It is not an excuse to do nothing but it really is quite scary that long-term strategies could be decided in Copenhagen next month based upon apparent climatic trends that are not yet fully understood.