What a difference a year makes! At last year’s AHR Expo, I lamented the fact that most of the educational sessions concerning refrigerants were rather general in nature and focused more on the past rather than the future. This year, it was completely different, with numerous manufacturers and industry organizations getting specific about the next generation of low-GWP refrigerants.
Daikin and Arkema, for example, were both eager to talk about R-32, which is their choice to replace R-410A in many space cooling products. At a press conference at the Expo, Philip Johnston, general manager at Daikin Applied, explained that because it is a pure single component, Daikin believes that R-32 is the most balanced and ideal refrigerant to replace R-410A for certain residential, light commercial, and applied air conditioning applications.