ASHRAE recently hosted an informative webcast titled “The Future of Refrigerants: Unitary and VRF Systems.” Some of the topics touched on during the presentation included the future of low-GWP refrigerant options for unitary products, whether future refrigerant retrofits will be possible, and some of the challenges involved when working with flammable refrigerants.
As with all alternative refrigerants, there are tradeoffs between efficiency, GWP, capacity, and glide. Safety is also a consideration, given that many alternative refrigerants are mildly flammable (A2L). The panelists reviewed the advantages and disadvantages of most of the alternatives that are currently being considered for unitary and VRF systems.