"R-245fa has the potential to offer the lowest life-cycle costs of any non-ozone-depleting refrigerant available for lower pressure centrifugal chillers," said Randy Cool, OEM sales and marketing manager for Honeywell.

"Its performance and environmental characteristics are comparable or superior to refrigerants currently used in lower pressure centrifugal chillers." He said thermodynamic efficiency "approaches that of R-123 and surpasses that of R-134a."

According to Cool, approaching regulations restricting the availability of HFCs such as R-22 and R-123 for servicing air conditioning and refrigeration equipment should spur building owners and managers to explore equipment options that use non-ozone-depleting refrigerants. The company said R-245fa is SNAP-approved for use in new centrifugal chillers. Other uses cited were heat transfer applications for cooling, thermal management, waste heat recovery, and power generation.

For more information, visit www.honeywell.com.

Publication date: 03/01/2004