TRAINING
Flammable refrigerants training
With the impact on the HFC quotas beginning to impact across Europe, there is now a real need to change to low GWP Refrigerants. In the main, these low GWP Refrigerants are of greater benefit for the environment, but bring with them increased risk to health and safety and in particular with regard to flammability. Kelvin Kelly of Business Edge explains.
E
ven though the F-Gas regulations do not require technicians to be specifically assessed in the safe handling of these flammable refrigerants, there is growing impetus to encourage technicians to
upskill voluntarily. This encouragement is coming from a variety of sources including Industry bodies, manufacturers and end users. The Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Industry Board (ACRIB) has developed a syllabus which has been adopted by LCL Awards and BESA. The course covers the use of all A2L, A2 and A3 refrigerants and includes information on the different classes of flammability, the risks and hazards of these refrigerants and the requirements of site-specific risk assessments. The attendees will have to gain an understanding of the charge limits for
different systems in a variety of locations. This element will look at toxicity as well as covering flammability. Traditionally the industry has used A3 refrigerants. Newer refrigerants used within air conditioning, refrigeration and heat pumps are classified as having lower flammability A2L. (See table 1).
Flammability classifications are further defined as follows: Class 1 no flame propagation when tested in air Class 2L have a lower flammability of greater than 3.5%, a heat of combustion less than 19000 kJ/kg and have a maximum burn velocity of less than or equal to 10cm/s
Class 2 lower flammability limit of more than 0.1 kg/m³ and heat of combustion of less than 19kJ/kg
Class 3 highly flammable as defined by a lower flammability limit of less than or equal to 0.10 kg/m³ and a heat of combustion greater than or equal to 19kJ/kg
36 February 2020
Within the Air Conditioning Industry, we are seeing more and more manufacturers moving to HFC R32 (A2L, lower flammability). Within the refrigeration sector, the options available are slightly more varied, however a large percentage of these are the A2L Hydro-Fluoro-Olefins (HFO). Many are blends of HFC and HFO, usually consisting of R32 and HFO’s R1234ze or R1234yf at different ratios. R454A consists of R32 and R1234yf (35% and 65%) with R454C (21.5% and 78.5%).
Table 1: Refrigerant Safety Groups
Table 2
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