Further to the article ‘The end is nigh for hfcs’, (BSj 08/04) the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Industry Board (ACRIB) agrees that natural refrigerants should receive fair treatment, but so should hfcs. Statements such as ‘EU regulations signal the beginning of the end for hfcs’, are not true.

The regulation, and the Kyoto Protocol, both aim to minimise emissions. This is not the same as banning useful substances regardless of the overall environmental impact.

Whilst it is true that hfcs, if released, add to global warming, so does CO2. Refrigeration and air conditioning systems therefore add

to global warming both by direct emissions of refrigerants, and also by the much greater emissions of carbon dioxide from the generation of electricity to run the systems.

For least effect on the environment, it is the combination of these two effects that counts. In some cases, natural refrigerants will be both safe to use and more energy efficient, and they should be used. In other cases, hfcs may

provide the best overall solution for the environment. Systems using any refrigerants which leak will be less efficient as a result, and will add unnecessarily to global warming.

The industry needs to continue to seek the best solutions on a case-by-case basis, and to make efforts to reduce emissions of all refrigerants by ensuring competence of all refrigerant handlers. ACRIB proposed a mandatory refrigerant handler scheme to the UK government in early 2003. The proposed EU F-Gas directive will make this achievable.

Malcolm Horlick, secretary, the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Industry Board

Source

Building Sustainable Design