In terms of investment costs, equipment with replacement refrigerants R-454B and R-513A can be classified as approximately neutral, since the available refrigeration capacities of the equipment are approximately identical due to the physical properties of the refrigerants compared to the use of the original refrigerants R-410A and R-134a respectively. The refrigerant R-1234ze, on the other hand, delivers significantly smaller volumetric outputs than R-134a, so larger components must be used to achieve the same cooling performance. This makes the devices significantly larger and the cost of the components increases. The ability to choose between R-513A and R-1234ze for devices with screw compressors offers the advantage of focusing either on an average GWP of 631 combined with low investment costs and no combustibility or on a very low GWP of 7 combined with higher investment costs and low flammability.
The air-cooled chillers of the FGAC product line and reversible air-water heat pumps from the FGAH product line from FläktGroup are available with the three low GWP variants mentioned above. They are factory filled with refrigerant and hermetically closed. The devices are intended for outdoor installation so that the circulating refrigerant is not in the building, but only outdoors. This is very easy to meet the necessary security measures. These include, for example, distance rules to roof hatches or air intakes. An elaborate safety consideration, as required for direct evaporating VRF systems with flammable A2L refrigerants, is saved, as it is impossible to escape refrigerant during leaking evaporators or pipeline connections in occupancy areas. Compliance with the maximum permitted refrigerant quantities and, if necessary, further safety measures are no longer required.
FläktGroup relies on the low GWP refrigerant R513A (GWP 631) with safety class A1 for the water-cooled chillers for internal installation of the FGWC product lines, so that it can be implemented in the technical room without stricter safety requirements. Devices of the GLWC product line with the proven refrigerants R-410A (GWP 2088) and R-134a (GWP 1430) are still used without restrictions due to the advantageous A1 classification.