MechChem Africa February 2018

⎪ Heating, cooling, ventilation and air conditioning ⎪

According to Eurammon’s Stephan Sicars, a large share of refrigerating tasks can be solved well or very well with equipment that uses natural refrigerants, but development work is still necessary for systems in the medium capacity range between 5.0 and 100 kW.

costs. With equipment operating on fluori- nated hydrocarbons, these costs are paid by society at large because, in the long term, it is society at large that will have to cover the consequencesof the far higher environmental pollution. However, this competitive disad- vantagewould appear to be diminishing – not by sharing out the environment costs but by implementing stricter emission prevention requirements. With the costs resulting from the climate relevance of refrigerants increasingly being shared out between the equipment, and similarly with the requirements made by the governments in terms of operation and leak- age scenarios getting stricter all the time, solutions with natural refrigerants will sell better in the market. On the other hand, it is, for example, also probable that China will play a greater role in steering the market in future. That way new technologies will become increasingly competitive in China’s huge market, which

After all, the use of fossil energies is one of the main causes of CO 2 emissions. But in global terms, for the individual states it is far cheaper and easier to enforce a refrigerant prohibition than to specify energy efficiency measures for plants and equipment. In other words, plants that run on refrigerants with a higher GWP will certainly have to meet far stricter requirements in terms of equipment tightnessandmonitoringinfuture.Thismakes theuseof such refrigerants increasinglyunat- tractivebecauseof theexpense involved, thus diminishing the competitive disadvantage for machines with natural refrigerants. q

could then be more economically exported to other countries.

First Montreal, then Kigali: can we expect even tighter regulations for refrigerants in future? Stephan Sicars: I believe so. In my opinion, it is improbable that refrigerantswith aGWPof greater than about 100 will see broad use in themedium term. While apart fromprohibit- ing refrigerants that impact on the climate, therearealsootherwaysofmitigatingclimate change, for example by enhancing the energy efficiency of refrigerating systems.

“It is improbable that refrigerants with a GWP of greater than about 100 will see broad use in the medium term. While apart from prohibiting refrigerants that impact on the climate, there are also other ways of mitigating climate change, for example by enhancing the energy efficiency of refrigerating systems.”

Low Cost IoT Transducer for HVAC monitoring Featured at the AHR Expo 2018, The TDWLB-LC fromTransducers Direct allows remote monitoring of refrigerant pressure and tem- perature in air conditioning and refrigeration systems via mobile devices, the cloud, or directly to thermostats – and the unit’s extra- long battery life is setting the standard for OEM applications. The TDWLB-LC series sensor, installed on the refrigerant line to monitor both pressure and temperature, ensures the proper amount of refrigerant is in the system and it is running efficiently. Users can name sensors and set high/low alarms in a free app, as well as viewsub-cooling and superheating calculations. Permanent installations are possible due to its extra-long battery life, and data can be viewed remotely with the CirrusSense wireless gateway companion product.

withTransducersDirect to incorporate the specificcommunicationprotocolneededin their systems and we are also working on adding additional sensing data points such as indoor air quality.” The TDWLB-LC transducer offers ex- cellent resolutionandnoise immunity, reli- ably accurate measurements, while using very little power, making the sensor suit- able for permanent installations. Battery life is 24+ months and the transducer does not have to be removed from the application to replace the battery – and battery life is not being extended in the TDWLB-LC by slowing down the update rate of the sensor. OEMs have the ability to work with

“This product breaks price barriers for OEMs and is targeted for applications such as residential and commercial wireless ther- mostats and buildingmonitoring systems. Once the pressure drops or goes into alarm mode, the manufacturer or service technician is instantly notified of the pressures, which allows for a proactive insteadof reactive response. This new IoTdevice could alsobecome a new service/revenue stream while reducing the costs of driving around to check pressures manually. “The new transducer takes monitoring of refrigerant pressure and temperature to the next level by making the data available in systems where the sensor price was previously prohibitive,” says Rob Matthes, president of Transducers Direct. “OEMs can work

TransducersDirect, an IndustryLeader inTechnology, to incorporate different communication protocols, such as Zigbee or Z-Wave, in ordertomakethesensorusableintheirapplication.“TheTDWLB-LC is half the weight of its predecessor, as it incorporates a composite body,” adds Matthes. “This is an industry first and a major leap for- ward in terms of packaging technology within the pressure trans- ducer industry. It can be used as a diagnostic tool, an aftermarket installation, or an OEM sensor.” q

February 2018 • MechChem Africa ¦ 27