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carnot

10 karma · joined March 2, 2023

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carnot··on An open source initiative to share and compare heat pump performance data
Certified performance rating data from virtually any air-to-air, air-to-water, etc., system sold in North America is available here [1]. This includes capacity, COP, and sound data. It also includes integrated performance rating metrics like SEER, HSPF, IEER, etc.

[1] https://www.ahridirectory.org

carnot··on PFAS ban affects most refrigerant blends
A3 refrigerants (hydrocarbons) have very low charge quantity limits that basically make them infeasible systems with even modest capacities. Split type air conditioners or heat pumps predominately used in the US have several times the allowable limit of charge in the liquid line alone.

Building codes have only recently (and incompletely) been revised to allow mildly flammable refrigerants (A2L) inside most buildings for space conditioning. Amending these for A3 refrigerants is an uphill battle.

Ammonia is mildly flammable, toxic, and electrically conductive. Good luck finding/building a hermetically sealed compressor that is anywhere near affordable.

CO2 in a refrigeration cycle goes transcritical at even moderately warm temperatures, making the system very inefficient without adding several (typically expensive) changes to the cycle. Manufacturers would struggle to build a CO2 air conditioner that meets minimum efficiency standards at anywhere near current equipment costs.