CONTROLS AND INSTRUMENTATION
Compliance or management?
Tom Burniston, product manager, fixed instruments for Bacharach explores the difference between leak detection compliance and management.
R
efrigerant gas detection has been used in the marketplace for many years. The drivers for this have included safety, regulation, cost, energy efficiency, environmental protection and protection of the workplace and product inventory or produce.
Currently the refrigeration market in Europe is seeing an increased awareness of all these factors driven by the F-Gas regulations and the associated impact these changes are having, and will have into the future.
As the refrigeration market shapes itself to adjust to tighter industry regulation, two distinct approaches are becoming apparent when looking at refrigerant gas detection – compliance, and refrigerant management.
Compliance
F-Gas 517/2014 determines that refrigeration systems containing gas with a global warming potential (GWP) of 500 tonnes CO2
have a permanent leak detection system installed. (carbon dioxide) equivalent or greater must Those with more than 5 tonnes CO2 equivalent must be
inspected, with mandated intervals for inspection halved if a permanent leak detection system is installed. F-Gas is, however, not the only relevant legislation regarding refrigerant detection. EN 378-3:2008+A1:2012 states that systems with a charge of greater than 25kg refrigerant shall be fitted with a refrigerant detection system in the machinery room, designed to trigger ventilation when concentrations reach 50% of the occupational exposure limit (OEL) or 25% of the lower flammability limit (LFL).
In addition, an alarm must be activated if the potential concentration of leaking refrigerant may exceed the practical limit in accordance with EN 378-1:2008+A2:2012, Annex C.
These two regulations, in addition with safety codes related to the asphyxiation risk from CO2
in enclosed spaces – for example, cold rooms using CO2 as a refrigerant
– are driving an increased need for compliance-focussed refrigerant detection in the commercial environment. Most frequently this type of gas detection instrument will be employed in a machinery room housing compressor, chillers and other large refrigeration plant. The devices used for this type of compliance refrigerant detection are generally fairly simple and very cost-effective.
Typically, these instruments consist of a fixed position point detector with a localised audio-visual alarm, and some form of external communications capability such as relays, analogue output signals or BUS communications. These are used to drive alerts to then instigate actions to mitigate the leak.
42 December 2016
www.acr-news.com
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