Welcome to Our GEA Global HVAC Blog

ASHRAE Winter Conference/AHR Expo – The HVAC Industry at a Glance

By Larry Butz – GEA Consulting

Observations from this year’s Conference and Expo in Chicago January 21 - 25.

1. Largest show ever based on exhibitors and attendees
2. Continuing interest in heat pumps and heat recovery versions of products , e.g. I think we are finally getting serious about actual, real, installed energy efficiency.
3. Increasing interest in system performance (energy efficiency) rather than component efficiency.
4. Geothermal heat pumps and technologies continue to see expanding use; case studies are showing verifiable good results.
5. Growing use of microchannel heat exchangers.
6. New models and expanded offerings of modular chillers.
7. Low GWP refrigerants development and analysis activity accelerating. “Dial-a-Blend” refrigerants offering not as unrealistic as might have been thought. R-404A coming under a lot of pressure because of high GWP value. R-410A replacements (both drop-ins and new optimized alternatives) are being proposed. Get ready for a whole new set of acronyms for the different blends being proposed by the various refrigerant manufacturers.
8. Custom products for Data Servers, a rapidly expanding market in these days of increasing interest in “cloud” storage.
9. VRF (Variable Refrigerant Flow) seeing increasing expansion in use as industry slowly learns about this relatively new product.

New Refrigerants and Oils – System and Component Material Compatibility Issues

by Ed Eisermann, Sr GEA Associate

This is the final posting in our multiple segment blog "Six Keys To A Successful Refigerant Transition" series ran in recent months (see part 1)

Recent blogs have discussed the topics of the rapid changes in refrigerant compounds to reduce global warming and protect the environment for future generations. The one topic that has not been covered in depth has been the compatibility of these refrigerants and refrigerant blends on the many materials and components within an air conditioning system.

Early in my career, HCFC 123 became a key refrigerant for large tonnage Centrifugal products as a replacement for R-11.  R-11 had been used for decades and many did not anticipate the substitution of the HCFC 123 compound for R-11.  Plastic and rubber products reacted differently with HCFC 123 than they did with R-11. When in contact during the refrigerant cycle certain materials swelled and adhesives used for spliced vulcanized O-ring joints failed just to mention two.

No one anticipated the impact of changing to HCFC123.  The manufactures of O-rings, valves and sensors did not study the impact of their components and potential effect or consequences to the HVAC products using them.  Laboratory testing somehow did not uncover the problems resulting from extended exposure to HCFC123.

I write this blog post to alert the audience of the potential issues. My recommendations to readers are the following:

• Keep your material and component suppliers in the loop to redesigns that will use new refrigerants and oil bends.
• Understand what non-metallic materials are in their valves, distributors etc. that have the potential of being impacted by these refrigerants and oils.
• Work with your suppliers of refrigerants and oils to determine whether they have done long term studies on the effect of their products on the material used by your HVAC component suppliers.
• Make sure that during your transition period there is control of items such as O-rings and components if there is any Form-Fit or Function impact.
• If there is a “FFF” impact, ensure that service literature is revised to highlight the importance of component interchangeability.  A “Service Alert” may be warranted.
• Alert the service industry to be prepared for segregation and management of the current and new refrigerant and oils that will be in the new product versus the current installed product.
• Lastly, remember that refrigerants and oils are not always compatible in an HVAC system. As new refrigerant compounds are developed, it is important to understand their long term compatibility with the HVAC products .

 

TED.com - Creative, Stimulating, Educational Speaker Videos

By Larry Butz - GEA Consulting     

In industry we are always looking for new ideas, better ways of doing things, thinking outside the nine dots, etc.... We read books, go to conferences, seminars and meetings in the quest.

I would like to share with you a resource that I have been using that does exactly this...at no cost. It is TED.com, a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. 

The two annual TED conferences, in Long Beach/Palm Springs and Edinburgh, Scotland, bring together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes or less).

Among the more than 1000 speaker videos you will find

Steve Jobs: How to Live Before You Die,

Barry Schwartz on The Paradox of Choice,

Bill Gates on Energy: Innovating to Zero! or

Martin Jacques: Understanding the rise of China

Give it a try. Take a few minutes to understand the criteria you wish to apply in finding the right speaker presentation for you. Ted.com

BEST BLOG POSTS of 2011

Is it a well written post?.., a catchy title or simply a current hot topic? Being in the blogging business now for a full year it was time to evaluate our blog and its Sister Blog at Global Spec. Here’s what we found.

The first conclusion is readers are looking for education in HVAC technologies and trends in the HVAC industry. Our most popular topic was the series on Understanding Oil Return by four separate GEA Associates. This is one of the most critical technologies affecting product life expectancy, reliability, warranty expense and company profitability. This is also an area where GEA is frequently engaged to help our clients resolve (and manage) oil return and capture lost profit dollars.

The second most read topic is a sign of the times – Refrigerants. We had more than 15 postings in the last year as focus was directed on the refrigerant GWP(Global Warming Potential) value, largely driven by the regulation in the EU mandating values lower than 150 (which is currently causing a phaseout of R-134a in car AC). We did a six part series on A Successful Refrigerant Transition with individual topics covered by six different GEA associates from around the world.

Our third best blog posting was titled Best HVAC Videos.  A whim of an idea at the time but it continues to have a surprising number of page visits today. Not completely sure why. What Do You Think? What’s the Draw? If a picture is worth a thousand words how many for a video?

Fourth was our World Class Factory Audits That Include Your Customers post. An intriguing concept of bringing your customer into your factory to be part of a quality audit team.

Fifth was the Smart Grid posting which captured a very popular topic that is/will influence the buildings and HVAC industries.  Just like the prior one, a snappy title, well written content and popular topic is what readers are looking for.

And finally, sixth was the series on Material Selection which proves that what might sound like a boring topic can be snappy and interesting with just a little bit of imagination and flair.

Well, what have we missed?  Which did you think were among the best? What topics did we under serve? Which topics would you like to see more of?

First Chillers Using New HFO Refrigerants Operating

By Larry Butz - President, GEA Consulting

We have been (perhaps, over) emphasizing the topic of New Refrigerants in our recent posts but we like to stay on top of hot topics during periods of rapid change - this is when the biggest opportunities (and risks) are.

Duane Lom's recent blog posting Follow the Leaders discussed the contrarian strategy of Not Following the Leaders and finding opportunities in niche markets where the leaders are unable or unwilling to move into quickly. Italian-manufacturer, Geoclima demonstrated this with the announced start-up of  the first HFO chiller operating on Honeywell's R-1234ze. The two 180kW chillers use Frascold semi-hermetic compressors and provide chilled water for a Waitrose supermarket in Bromley, Kent, in the UK. Initial tests show attractive reductions in energy consumption but should be tempered with the enthusiasm of a leader into a new area.

According to Klima-Therm "The focus at the moment is on HFO-1234ze, as the refrigerant is already available at commercial levels. In the longer term, we are also interested in the potential of HFO-1234yf, which has an even lower GWP and potential other benefits. This is one for the future, but it is in our sights." ( read more)

It will be interesting to see the different approaches (and regulations which will drive different solutions) in Europe and the other regions of the world. Comments welcome.

Choosing Refrigerants – Consider Full Range of Usage

By Dick Cawley, GEA Sr. Associate

Part 6 in the ongoing series "How To Make A Successful Refrigerant Transition"

The HVAC&R industry – after spending considerable time and money converting to ozone friendly refrigerants – is now searching for alternatives with low global warming potential and short atmospheric life. Good choices are being formulated by chemical companies; and, as before, natural refrigerants are being considered.

The purpose for this note is to caution those exploring alternative refrigerants to not simply focus on system conditions that occur when equipment is being tested for rating purposes.  Many products are required to perform as heat pumps, and they must necessarily encounter – and be required to operate under - extreme ambient conditions such as -20 F and 115 F. In these cases, relative efficiency is important, but also the equipment’s life and reliability must not be jeopardized. While the extreme conditions occur during a relatively small percentage of equipment operation, they must nevertheless be taken into account.

Table1. is intended to show typical operating conditions for heat pumps when heating and cooling.  Other products such as low temperature refrigeration units would also need to be studied through a full operating range.

 

	Table 1.
Typical conditions of qualification for Refrigerants Used in Heat Pumps
	Typical	Typical			Typical COP
Ambient, F	condensing temp., F	evaporating temp., F			22	410A	134a	1234yf
-20	78	-27			2.27	2.12	2.27	2.2
-10	82	-18			2.49	2.38	2.51	2.44
0	86	-9			2.75	2.63	2.77	2.72
17	92	6			3.2	3.06	3.24	3.18
35	99	23			3.81	3.63	3.88	3.82
47	103	33			4.26	4.05	4.34	4.29
82	102	50			6.15	5.87	6.31	6.27
95	115	50			4.74	4.46	4.85	4.78
105	125	50			3.98	3.69	4.06	3.97
115	135	50			3.39	3.08	3.45	3.34

The conditions marked in red are those tested for rating purposes. The others are just as important for reliability and efficiency. As you transition to new refrigerants make sure you have fully tested your products over the full range to assure customer satisfaction.

Further Reading of previous segments in the Refrigerant Series:

Six Keys to a Successful Refrigerant Transition (Part 1)

Keys to a Successful Refrigerant Transition (Part 2)

There is No "Perfect Refrigerant"! (Part 3)

Beyond the Nine Dots of Refrigerant Environmental Properties (Part 4)

Refrigerant Transition - Follow the Leaders (Part 5)

 

Refrigerant Transition-Follow The Leaders

By Duane Lom, GEA Sr. Associate

Part 5 in the ongoing series How To Make A Successful Refrigerant Transition

When it comes to a major design change like using a new refrigerant in a system, knowing what the industry leaders are doing can offer many insights.  Whatever approach a leader is using, it’s a good bet that he has done his homework. 

-    The HVAC industry leaders are well known for their capabilities in analysis and testing of new designs before they bring them to market.  If your product operates in the same environment and application as a leader’s product, you can use that as a basic starting point for your product.  This does not mean you can shortcut the due diligence process in product design; it only means that you have some assurance that you can avoid a false start in selecting a suitable refrigerant.

-     Components should be readily available both for new production and service parts.  The leaders, with their large sales volumes, will naturally spur a good supply of components suitably applicable to the new refrigerant.

-     The refrigerant itself should be in good supply and at an affordable price.  Again the large volume usage by an industry leader will spur a good supply of the new refrigerant at an affordable price.

-     The installation and service industry should be prepared to handle the new refrigerant and have the appropriate tools for the job.  A new refrigerant means the right service tools and adequate training for installation and service personnel is required.  Following a leader should assure the installation and service industry is ready to handle your product.

-     Following a leader should provide insights into all the aspects of applying a particular refrigerant.  Safety issues (toxicity and flammability, for example), performance issues (pressure levels and heat transfer properties, for example), economics, regulation issues, environmental issues and the list goes on.

The flip side of this is that the leaders do not know everything or there may be no leaders to follow.  There are many examples of companies that successfully implemented alternative refrigerants without the aid of industry leaders.  In the early 1990’s, a number of European companies successfully introduced R407C based products.  Another company, without the advantages of having a leader to follow, introduced hydrocarbons as a refrigerant in domestic refrigerators.  So if you do have a good reason not to follow the leaders or the leaders don’t exist, be prepared to face the risks and hurdles of refrigerant and component availability and cost, having a trained workforce to install and service your product, and developing the knowledge base for the new refrigerant with regards to safety, performance, economics, regulation and the environmental impact.

Another word of caution on following a leader.  Recognize that the leader’s design work was done years before and current conditions may make that refrigerant choice obsolete.  In particular, be sure to use current information regarding safety, environmental issues and regional regulations.  To again emphasize a key point made by Rajan Rajendran, Engineering Director, Emerson Climate Technologies in his webcast on Refrigerant Evaluation and Selection - "Future refrigerants may differ by application and region, more than today’s”.

Following a leader or not, either way you have to do your homework.

 

Disaster Recovery, Are You Ready?

by Ed Eisermann, GEA Sr. Consultant

My experience suggests that most companies do not have a formal documented Disaster Recovery Program. 

With the many natural disasters, plant fires and explosions these past couple years it begs the question; “ Has national news coverage of the past several years of major disasters sparked senior management to  question their internal disaster recovery process? 

I wonder, “Did the businesses that have made the headlines have a comprehensive Disaster Recovery Program?  Was a key team in place with a documented program to lead the many aspects of a related recovery in a planned and orderly manner?

My 35 years of business experience confirms that most companies do not have a formal documented Disaster Recovery Program.  Yes, many companies have pieces or segments of a disaster recovery program within individual functions such as succession planning, duel suppliers or  a hazardous spit processes.  Many are the result of state and federal  legislation or law suits that forced creation of a specific disaster prevention and recovery program. Ever wonder how many companies actually have a formal documented plan to alert the public and initiate a national product recall?   There are many other areas that should be documented in some format where details are readily and available to senior management. Today, in our fast moving world and the speed of communication, public response time is critical to control potential brand damage. There is usually not sufficient time to develop a strategy ‘after the fact" to define what communication is warranted and directed to the right people.

At the top of the communication list must be the key business stack holders included: 

• Employees
• Customers
• Suppliers
• Community
• Local and National Media as appropriate

My may say, “How do you have a comprehensive Disaster Recovery Program when you do not know when and what the disaster may be”.  I would say to them, "start with a team and have them research the major potential Disasters." Using this data define potential resources for a successful communication blitz along with a program that includes a generic flow chart  that ensures an expedited return to normal business. Firefighting after the fact is not the best approach as we have observed domestically and internationally during the past several years.

Edward Eisermann

Refrigerant Evaluation and Selection - New Information

By Larry Butz - President, GEA Consulting

In our ongoing series titled Making a Successful Transition to New Refrigerants we have been addressing many of the issues in this increasingly complex issue. We even revisited the concept of the Perfect Refrigerant which GEA's Ed Keuper puts  in perspective.

Never has the HVAC/R industry been further from this endpoint than right now. This was obvious to those who participated in November 2nd's webinar titled Refrigerant Evaluation and Selection hosted by The NEWS. Featured speaker, Rajan Rajendran, Engineering Director, Emerson Climate Technologies provided a closing observation that "Future refrigerants may differ by application and region, more than today’s" echoing an opinion from this blog that "dial-a-blend" was not an unlikely scenario.

It would appear that (certain) HFCs, HFOs, Hydrocarbons, Carbon Dioxide and an array of combinations of these will find their own particular areas of optimization and application as a result of unique application requirements (industrial, commercial, residential, supermarket, mobile), regional climate, national regulations, type and cost of electricity, safety standards, cost, etc. There may be no Perfect Refrigerant but it appears there may be an array of Perfect Refrigerants.

At this time it appears a "sweet spot" is emerging in the area of fluids/mixtures in the range of 500 to 700 GWP. Here the tradeoff betweeen efficiency and GWP places appropriate emphasis on efficiency. This would appear a good choice for many applications. However, countries and regions such as the EU may prevent use with existing mandates of GWP < 150.

If the subject of "Refrigerants" is of importance to your business I encourage you to find an hour to watch and listen to Raj's excellent presentation and the discussion from this webinar (Full Presentation). You might also want to download the slide presentation itself (Refrigerants Slide Presentation) and digest in more detail the wealth of information in it.

I applaud and thank Rajan, Emerson and The NEWS for this highly informative presentation.

 

Beyond the Nine Dots of Refrigerant Environmental Properties

Part 4 of the Series: Keys to a Successful Refrigerant Transition

By Jean- Paul Thierion – GEA Consulting, Andernos les bains, FR

The Refrigeration and the Air Conditioning industries brought substantial progress to the mankind allowing healthier sanitary standards for food conservation and better thermal comfort for human beings in homes and working places. Unfortunately, like many other human activities, refrigeration and air conditioning systems can present the risk to negatively affect the environment either directly and/or indirectly. It is therefore important when working on the design of new hvac or refrigeration systems or when retrofitting existing ones for new refrigerants, to consider both the direct and the indirect effects in terms of magnitude and time.

Direct effect on the environment when Ozone Depletion Substances (ODS) and Global Warming Potential (GWP) refrigerants are released in the atmosphere. This may occur when small leaks of the equipment are left undetected for long periods, or more rarely in case of large accidental released. Both situations are abnormal and are generally the consequence of poorly maintained equipment or improper service practices.

This was very critical for the ozone layer depletion when refrigerants containing chlorine atoms where widely used, such as ChloroFluoroCarbon (CFC’s) and this until theMontrealprotocol in 1987 voted the phase out of these refrigerants. To a lesser degree but widely used worldwide, HydroChloroFluoroCarbon (HCFC’s) refrigerants also with chlorine atoms can be used until 2020 in the E.U and 2030 elsewhere. The latest chlorine free HydroFluoroCarbon (HFC’s) refrigerants, although without direct impact for the ozone layer, have a direct effect on the environment because of their GWP.

It must be emphasized that the direct effect of the refrigerant substances occurs only when the refrigerants are released in the atmosphere, which  is not normal and which can be almost completely eliminated with modern equipment incorporating latest technologies, and with good maintenance and service procedures.

In normal situations, the direct impact of refrigerants on environment should be very small.

Indirect effect on the environment with the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) from power plants generating the electricity used to power these HVAC and refrigeration systems during their lifetime. This indirect component varies from one country to another depending with the types of power plants, their emission rates, and with the source used to produce electricity: coal, lignite, oil, gas, nuclear plants, wind mills, etc… On average in western countries calculation for comparison can be based on 0,5 kg of CO2/kWh, slightly more in theUnited States and slightly less inEurope.

It can be easily foreseen that the indirect impact is a very significant factor, depending of the running time of the equipment and its efficiency.

It must be noted that in plant rooms, it is not only the replacement or retrofit of the largest pieces of equipment (chillers, air handlers, boilers) which can generate big savings of energy; kWh usage for pumps, fans, cooling towers, controls etc…must also be taken into account. For instance significant savings can often be obtained by reducing the water flows using higher fluid temperature differences and variable speed pumps (except for process applications, chillers usually clock less running hours than the associated circulating pumps, and pumping power varies in cube relation to flow; 20% flow reduction means 49% less power).

To facilitate the comparison between systems using different refrigerants, and to determine the global impact on the environment during the lifetime of the equipment, a methodology called TEWI is being used. TEWI is defined as follows:

(TEWI = Total Equivalent Warming Impact = Direct warming impact + Indirect Warming impact). The formula to calculate TEWI is the following:

TEWI = (GWPr x Qr x Lr x Year) + (GWPr x Qr x (1 – Rr)) + (Year x E x Emco2)

               Direct Impact               Direct Impact               Indirect Impact

with:

TEWI               expressed in kg CO2

GWPr               Global Warming Potential of the refrigerant substance expressed in equivalent kg of CO2 (100 years integrated time)

Qr                    Charge of refrigerant in the system expressed in kg

Lr                     Leak rate of refrigerant per annum expressed in % of the charge

Year                 Life time of the equipment

Rr                    % of refrigerant recovered at the end of lifetime

E                      Annual energy consumption of the equipment in kWh/year

Emco2             Emission of CO2 in power plants to produce the energy

In Japanan alternative method is sometimes used called LCCP which adds to TEWI the direct impact on environment of the production process producing the refrigerant. 

It is interesting to consider the relative weight of the direct and indirect components in the TEWI equation.

In the early 70’s although there was no real statistical information at the time, it was common practice to release some refrigerants into the atmosphere during installation and service operations; added to the fact that refrigerants commonly used at the time presented high GWP characteristics, the direct impact on environment was significantly high and could be estimated around 30% of the total impact, the other 70% being due to the indirect effect. Later in the 80’s when scientists began to raise the alarm of the risk associated with the usage of halogen

refrigerants (initially for the depletion of the ozone layer), the balance between the direct and the indirect effects quickly dropped to approximately 10% direct vs 90% indirect. Nowdays with the strong focus on global warming, and thanks to the progress of technologies (better tightness of the equipment and fittings, more sophisticated purge systems, sensitive leak detection alarms, etc…) and with more ecological service procedures, the range is close to 1% or even less for the direct impact, vs 99% for the indirect impact (of the equivalent kg of CO2 released in the atmosphere).

It is therefore obvious that in terms of global warming and protection of the environment, (safety and cost being other factors to take into consideration), the effort and attention should be given in priority to the efficiency of the new or retrofitted systems. The indirect effect of the efficiency being far more significant than the environmental properties of the refrigerant.